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A  LIFE  OF 
GEORGE  WESTINGHOTJSE 


MO 


A  LIFE  OF 
GEORGE   WESTINGHOUSE 


BY 

HENRY  G.  PROUT,  C.E.,  A.M.,  LL.D. 


."  The  history  of  the  world  is  the  biography  of  great  men." 

— Carlyle 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 
1922 


COPTBIGHT,   1921,    BY 

THE  AMERICAN  SOCIETY  OF  MECHANICAL  ENGINEERS 


FEINTED  AT 

THE  SCRIBNER  PRESS 

NEW  YORK,  U.  8.  A. 


PREFACE 

MANY  officers  and  members  of  The  American  Society 
of  Mechanical  Engineers  have  thought  that  the  Society 
ought  to  publish  the  lives  of  some  of  its  great  men.  In  1912 
it  published  a  special  edition  of  the  "Autobiography  of 
John  Fritz,  Honorary  Member  and  Past  President."  This 
life  of  George  Westinghouse,  Honorary  Member  and  Past 
President,  is  the  second  in  what  may  be  a  series  of  such 
biographies. 

The  activities  of  George  Westinghouse  were  many  and 
varied,  and  many  different  activities  went  on  simultane- 
ously. He  dealt  in  the  same  week,  and  often  in  the  same 
day,  with  organization,  financial  and  executive  affairs,  com- 
mercial affairs,  and  the  engineering  details  of  half  a  dozen 
companies  in  two  hemispheres.  They  were  as  far  apart 
in  kind  as  the  air  brake  and  natural  gas,  and  as  far  apart 
in  geography  as  San  Francisco  and  St.  Petersburg.  That 
being  so,  it  seemed  that  a  chronological  narrative  would 
of  necessity  lead  to  some  confusion,  not  to  say  fatigue,  for 
the  reader.  It  was  decided  to  treat  each  topic  by  itself 
without  regard  to  what  might  be  going  on  at  the  same  time 
in  other  fields,  with  a  short  preliminary  chapter  to  which 
the  reader  might  return  to  orient  himself  should  he  care, 
for  instance,  to  know  what  other  serious  things  were  in 
hand  at  a  critical  moment  in  the  history  of  the  air  brake. 
It  was  hoped  that  by  this  treatment  a  certain  continuity 
of  impression  might  be  kept  in  each  story  told  by  itself. 

Another  reason  for  the  segregation  of  topics  is  their  tech- 
nicality. By  their  nature  they  cannot  be  easy  reading, 


vi  PREFACE 

even  for  all  engineers,  and  segregation  makes  skipping  easy. 
Finally,  from  the  first  chapter  and  the  last  two,  a  reader  who 
is  quite  impervious  to  engineering  of  any  kind  (if  such  a 
being  exists)  can  get  a  notion  of  Westinghouse  and  of  what 
he  meant  to  mankind. 

The  variety  in  Westinghouse's  life  seemed  to  dictate 
the  form  that  a  biography  should  take.  Other  conditions 
seemed  to  indicate  the  best  way  of  preparing  it.  He  left 
no  written  record  except  in  the  files  of  his  numerous 
companies.  He  wrote  almost  no  private  letters.  He  kept 
no  journals  or  even  note-books.  He  made  but  few  ad- 
dresses and  wrote  few  papers.  Some  record  of  his  work 
might  be  made  after  a  laborious  search  of  office  files,  so 
far  as  the  files  of  forty-eight  years  still  exist,  but  the  result 
would  be  formal  and  without  color.  It  would  not  be  a  life, 
and  George  Westinghouse  was  a  very  human  being.  Fur- 
thermore no  one  man  has  the  range  of  knowledge  and  the 
comprehensive  judgment  of  the  relative  importance  of  the 
things  done  to  fit  him  to  write  an  adequate  life  of  George 
Westinghouse.  Lord  Rosebery  said  that  it  would  take  a 
syndicate  to  write  the  life  of  Gladstone;  perhaps  this  is 
quite  as  true  of  a  life  of  Westinghouse. 

Fortunately,  there  are  many  men  still  living  and  work- 
ing who  were  close  to  Westinghouse,  some  of  them  almost 
from  the  beginning  of  his  active  life,  and  those  men  have 
contributed  liberally  from  the  stores  of  their  memories  and 
impressions.  The  editor's  duty  has  been  to  digest  these 
contributions,  to  coordinate  them,  and  to  keep  a  reason- 
able perspective.  In  this  he  has  been  aided  by  the  Com- 
mittee of  The  American  Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers 
appointed  for  that  purpose.  Sometimes  the  language  of 
the  writers  has  been  used  with  little  change.  This  is  par- 
ticularly the  case  with  the  descriptive  parts  of  the  air-brake 


PREFACE  vii 

chapter,  although  even  there  large  liberties  have  been 
taken.*  Generally  the  contributions  sent  in  have  been 
freely  rewritten,  as  was  expected  by  those  who  wrote  them. 
Such  a  method,  while  very  ancient,  has  its  difficulties,  but 
the  outcome  in  this  case  may  serve  to  give  the  reader  a 
fairly  just  conception  of  the  man  of  whom  Lord  Kelvin 
said:  "George  Westinghouse  is  in  character  and  achieve- 
ments one  of  the  great  men  of  our  time." 

The  purpose  has  been  to  write  a  life  of  George  Westing- 
house.  For  clearness  and  accuracy,  and  to  give  authority 
for  statements  made,  it  has  seemed  well  to  mention  the 
names  of  some  of  those  who  helped  him,  but  there  has  been 
no  attempt  to  make  systematic  or  approximately  complete 
mention  of  the  many  men  to  whose  cooperation  he  owed 
a  great  deal;  one  would  not  know  where  to  stop.  By 
those  qualities  of  mind  and  heart  which  this  book  will 
make  known  to  the  reader,  Westinghouse  attached  to  him- 
self a  large  group  of  able,  loyal,  and  even  devoted  assis- 
tants. Amongst  them  were  many  brilliant  and  constructive 
minds — organizers,  administrators,  executives,  and  engi- 
neers. The  committee  and  the  editor  regret  that  it  is  not 
practicable  to  enter  upon  the  delicate  task  of  telling  what 
these  men  did  in  the  work  here  chronicled. 

For  the  material  in  this  book  the  reader  is  much  indebted 
to  Henry  Herman  Westinghouse,  Charles  A.  Terry,  John 
F.  Miller,  Benjamin  G.  Lamme,  Paul  D.  Cravath,  Herbert 
T.  Herr,  and  Lewis  B.  Stillwell.  Important  passages  and 
suggestions  have  been  supplied  by  Edwin  M.  Herr,  Loyall  A* 
Osborne,  Charles  F.  Scott,  Reginald  Belfield,  Calvert  Town- 
ley,  Frank  H.  Shepard,  Hubert  C.  Tener,  Albert  Kapteyn, 
T.  U.  Parsons,  J.  H.  Luke,  Albert  Chinn,  and  J.  J.  Elmer. 

*The  editor  is  particularly  grateful  to  Mr.  John  F.  Miller,  who  put  into 
the  air-brake  chapter  labor,  knowledge,  taste,  and  judgment. 


viii  PREFACE 

The  committee  in  charge  of  the  work  were:  Charles  A. 
Terry,  chairman;  Paul  D.  Cravath,  Alexander  C.  Humph- 
reys, James  H.  McGraw,  Charles  F.  Scott,  Lewis  B.  Still- 
well,  Ambrose  Swasey,  with  Henry  Herman  Westinghouse 
always  in  consultation. 


CONTENTS 


I.    INTRODUCTORY 1 

Birth  and  birthplace — Ancestry — His  brothers — In  the 
Civil  War — Inherited  qualities — Education  in  school  and 
shop — Early  inventions — Marriage  and  home — Princi- 
pal enterprises — Decade  of  greatest  output — The  last 

years. 

II.    THE  AIR  BRAKE 21 

Some  early  notions — He  turns  to  the  air-brake — Who 
invented  the  air-brake? — Creates  a  new  art — First  air- 
braked  trains — The  automatic  brake  comes — The  Scott 
model,  Franklin  Institute — Fundamentals  of  the  auto- 
matic brake — Development  of  the  triple  valve — Some 
accessories — The  Burlington  brake  trials — The  quick- 
action  triple — The  triumph  after  Burlington — English 
experiences — The  Galton-Westinghouse  experiments  and 
some  lessons — The  education  of  the  users. 

III.  FRICTION  DRAFT  GEAR 77 

A  new  principle  introduced — Genesis  of  the  friction  gear 

— First  patent,  1888 — First  commercial  use  nine  years 
later — Its  various  functions — Effects  hi  starting  trains 
— Its  comparative  importance. 

IV.  A  GENERAL  SKETCH  OF  ELECTRIC  ACTIVITIES    .      87 
Some  elementary  explanations — Early  interest  in  electric 
lighting — Early  railway  work — His  interest  in  alternat- 
ing current  is  aroused — Buys  the  Gaulard  and  Gibbs 
patents — The  transformer  is  developed — Westinghouse 
Electric  Company  chartered — Opposition  to  alternating 
current — Ninety-five  per  cent  of  electric  energy  used 

now  alternating  current— The  central  power-station 
idea. 

fe 


x  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

V.    THE  INDUCTION  MOTOR  AND  METER  ....     121 
Tesla's  invention — Seven  years  developing  to  usefulness 
— A  great  chapter  in  electrical  history — Steps  in  devel- 
opment of  the  motor — Shallenberger  invents  a  meter. 

VI.    THE  ROTARY  CONVERTER 130 

The  economic  place  of  the  rotary  converter — Its  first 
serious  commercial  development  at  East  Pittsburgh — 
Effect  on  the  electric  art. 


VII.    THE  CHICAGO  WORLD'S  FAIR 134 

Westinghouse  takes  the  lighting  contract — And  then 
develops  a  lamp — And  the  means  of  making  it — Exhibits 
alternating-current  machinery — A  historical  moment. 

VIII.    NIAGARA  FALLS 141 

The  Cataract  Construction  Company — An  international 
commission — Decision  reached  to  distribute  power  by 
electricity — And  to  use  alternating  current — the  Tellu- 
ride  plant  and  its  effects — Compressed-air  transmission 
— Studies  of  frequency — The  contract  awarded  October 
1893 — Magnitude  of  the  enterprise  and  some  results — 
Certain  local  enterprises. 


IX.    ELECTRIC  TRACTION 159 

Early  trolley  roads — Westinghouse  foresaw  heavy  elec- 
trification with  alternating  current — But  had  first  to 
enter  the  street-railway  field — Development  of  direct- 
current  apparatus— State  of  the  art— Slow  and  difficult 
growth  of  alternating-current  systems — St.  Clair  Tun- 
nel— New  Haven  Railroad — Milwaukee  and  St.  Paul — 
Regeneration — Load  balancing — Some  effects  of  railroad 
electrification. 


X.    STEAM  AND  GAS  ENGINES 179 

Patents  a  rotary  engine — Designs  a  reciprocating  engine 
with  radial  cylinders — And  gas  engines — The  turbine — 
Patents  the  single-double-flow  turbine— And  a  reaction- 
impulse  type — The  reduction  gear — Some  by-products 
— Propeller  experiments — Condenser  improvements. 


CONTENTS  xi 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XI.    THE  TURBO-GENERATOR 201 

Its  industrial  importance — Some  details — Displaces  the 
engine-type  generator — The  course  of  development — 
Some  of  the  difficulties. 

XII.    SIGNALLING  AND  INTERLOCKING 212 

What  they  are  and  what  they  do — Westinghouse  brought 
in  the  use  of  power — Hydropneumatic  systems — Elec- 
tropneumatic — The  first  power  interlocking — Slow 
progress  in  the  United  States — Effects  of  power  signal- 
ling and  interlocking. 

XIII.  NATURAL  GAS 224 

Westinghouse  begins  in  1883— Takes  out  thirty-eight 
patents— Special  dangers  in  the  use  of  natural  gas— The 
Philadelphia  Company— Results— Pittsburgh  without 
smoke — Fuel  gas. 

XIV.  VARIOUS  INTERESTS  AND  ACTIVITIES    ....     233 
Lamps — Nernst  lamp — Cooper  Hewitt  lamp — Rectifier 

— Multiple-unit  control — Car,  Air,  and  Electric  Coupler 
— Research — Telephone — Board  of  Patent  Control — Air 
spring — The  steel  car — Copper. 

XV.    EUROPEAN  ENTERPRISES 262 

World-wide  plans — British  Westinghouse  Electric  and 
Manufacturing  Company — The  underlying  idea  correct 
but  too  early— The  Clyde  Valley  Electrical  Power  Com- 
pany— The  central-station  idea  in  practice — Making 
brakes  in  France — The  Italian  company — The  Russian 
Brake  Company — Ten  or  a  dozen  lesser  companies — The 
broad  results. 

XVI.    FINANCIAL   METHODS— REORGANIZATION— EQUI- 
TABLE-LIFE EPISODE 273 

Westinghouse  and  the  bankers — Did  his  own  financing —       i 
Risked  his  own  money — The  influence  of  personality — 
An   idealist — Never  speculated — The  receiverships   of 
1907— The  reorganization— Equitable  Life  episode— The 
trusteeship. 

XVII.    THE  PERSONALITY  OP  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE  .     287 
Relations  with  his  men— The  family  spirit— The  Amber 


xii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTEB  PAGE 

Club — His  ethical  influence — An  enlightened  humani- 
tarian— The  Air  Brake  Company  as  an  example  of  his 
policies — Personal  characteristics — More  than  a  genius 
— Education — Some  encounters  with  the  laws  of  nature 
— Not  a  sceptic. 

XVIII.  THE  MEANING  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE  .  .  320 
His  life  was  history:  an  agent  of  civilization — Transpor- 
tation and  progress — Brakes  and  signals  and  transporta- 
tion— The  first  four  names  in  the  evolution  of  transpor- 
tation— The  manufacture  of  power  and  the  New  Era — 
An  ethnical  epoch — Effect  of  the  alternating  current  in 
the  New  Era. 

APPENDIX — PATENTS 331 

INDEX  369 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

George  Westinghouse Frontispiece 

George  Westinghouse,  Senior Faces  page  2 

Chart  of  Westinghouse  Companies Pages  12  and  13 

Type  "H"  automatic  quick-action  triple  valve      .     .       Faces  page   5* 

Westinghouse  friction  draft-gear "        "78 

George  Westinghouse  at  work "       "106 

Steam  turbine  and  Corliss  engine "       "184 

Parsons  single-flow  and  Westinghouse  single-double- 
flow  turbines  "       "188 

Turbo-generator  and  engine-type  generator ....          "        --    206 


CHAPTER  I 
INTRODUCTORY 

The  advance  of  mankind  has  everywhere  depended  on  the  production  of 
men  of  genius. — HUXLEY. 

GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE  was  born  in  the  little  village  of 
Central  Bridge,  New  York,  October  6,  1846.  He  came  of 
Westphalian  stock.  His  great-grandfather,  John  Hendrik 
Westinghouse,  came  to  America  with  his  mother,  a  widow, 
in  1755,  John  being  then  fifteen  years  old.  They  settled 
in  that  part  of  New  Hampshire  Grants  which  later  became 
Vermont,  at  Pownal,  Bennington  County.  It  was  a  good 
place  to  settle.  It  was  one  of  the  little  foci  of  the  free  co- 
lonial spirit.  It  was  named  for  Thomas  Pownal  (or  Pow- 
nall),  who  became  Governor  of  Massachusetts  in  1757, 
and  was  a  friend  of  Franklin,  of  the  colonists,  and  of  inter- 
colonial union.  Carlyle  says  that  he  reported  to  Pitt  his 
fear  that  "the  French  will  eat  America  from  us  in  spite  of 
our  teeth."  In  Pownal  the  Westinghouses  acquired  land 
and  built  a  log  cabin,  and  here  John  cleared  the  land,  raised 
a  large  family,  and  died  in  1802.  From  him  his  great- 
grandson  inherited  stature,  for  John  stood  six  feet  four 
inches  high,  and  inherited  mechanical  knack,  for  John 
made  for  his  mother  an  inlaid  wooden  work-box  while  they 
were  on  the  ocean.  This  box  is  still  possessed  by  a  member 
of  the  family. 

John's  son,  John  Ferdinand,  passed  his  life  in  Pownal. 
He  had  twelve  children,  the  fifth  of  whom  was  George, 
born  in  1809  and  died  in  1884.  This  George  married  Ema- 

1 


2  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

line  Vedder  and  they  had  ten  children,  the  eighth  having 
been  the  George  of  whom  we  write.  Three  generations  in 
the  flanks  of  the  Vermont  mountains  could  hardly  evolve 
as  complete  a  Yankee  as  six  generations,  but  in  this  case 
the  product  was  reasonably  satisfactory.  In  simplicity 
and  energy,  in  standards  of  conduct  and  habit  of  thought 
and  in  idiom  of  speech  the  two  Georges  could  not  be  dis- 
tinguished from  their  neighbors  six  or  seven  generations 
out  of  Devonshire. 

A  laborious  investigator  of  the  family  history,  a  certain 
Doctor  Carl  Alexander  von  Wistinghausen,  writes  that 
"Members  of  the  family  have  repeatedly  won  for  them- 
selves and  their  heirs  patents  of  nobility  by  service  ren- 
dered to  the  state."  Very  likely  so;  at  any  rate,  there  was 
energy  in  the  blood.  One  George  was  a  captain  in  the 
Russian  navy  and  distinguished  himself  greatly  in  battle 
in  command  of  a  frigate,  and  several  of  the  family  were 
ennobled  in  the  Russian  service.  Our  George  Westing- 
house  had  but  mild  and  casual  interest  in  the  annals  of  the 
family  and  we  find  only  a  few  fragments  concerning  the 
Wistinghausens  or  the  Westinghouses. 

His  mother  was  of  Dutch-English  stock  and  was  kin  to 
Elihu  Vedder,  an  American  artist  of  considerable  repute. 
Both  parents  came  of  generations  of  farmers  and  me- 
chanics, neither  rich  nor  poor,  self-respecting,  self-reliant, 
and  competent,  the  sort  of  people  who  make  the  bulk  and 
strength  of  the  nation.  One  has  but  to  study  the  por- 
trait of  the  father  to  see  where  George  Westinghouse  got 
his  character.  It  shows  power,  courage,  dignity,  and  kind- 
ness, and  the  lofty  head  indicates  not  only  mental  capacity, 
but  imagination.  The  mother,  too,  is  said  to  have  had 
imagination,  taste,  and  fancy  and  a  real  altruism  of  spirit. 
The  photographs  that  we  have  are  not  so  informing  as 


George  Westinghouse,  Senior. 


HIS  MOTHER  AND  HIS  BROTHERS  3 

those  of  the  father,  for  they  were  made  after  she  had  borne 
ten  children  and  had  endured  much  sorrow  from  the  death 
of  her  husband  and  sons.  Doctor  Fisher,  a  minister  who 
knew  the  family  intimately  for  many  years,  writes:  "From 
his  mother  he  gained  vivacity,  alertness,  and  a  cheerful 
spirit.  She  was  a  woman  of  clear  and  definite  religious 
faith  and  of  thoughtful  views  on  great  questions.  I  feel 
sure  she  gave  to  her  son  reverence  and  faithfulness."  These 
qualities  George  had  in  eminent  degree,  and  he  and  his  wife 
gave  to  this  mother  loving  and  tender  care  through  the 
declining  years  that  she  spent  in  their  home. 

Three  of  the  sons,  John,  Albert,  and  George,  served  in 
the  Union  army  and  navy  in  the  Civil  War  and  won  com- 
missions. Albert  was  a  youth  of  distinct  gifts  of  mind  and 
character.  The  tradition  is  that  he  was  the  most  promis- 
ing of  the  sons.  He  was  captured  at  the  battle  of  Gaines's 
Mill,  was  in  Libby  Prison  a  short  time,  was  exchanged,  and 
-received  a  commission  as  second  lieutenant  in  the  2d  New 
York  Veteran  Volunteer  Cavalry.  With  a  comrade  he 
swam  a  bayou  under  fire  and  brought  back  a  bateau  which 
was  used  to  ferry  over  the  command.  This  deed  was 
mentioned  in  reports.  Albert  was  killed  leading  a  cavalry 
charge  late  in  December  1864. 

John  served  as  an  engineer  officer  in  the  navy.  After 
the  war  he  returned  to  his  father's  business  in  Schenectady. 
Here  he  established  a  night  school  and  mission,  and  he 
gave  tune,  money,  and  work  to  helping  the  unfortunate. 
One  of  those  whom  he  had  befriended,  writing  in  1913, 
says:  "That  man  did  a  great  work  for  hundreds  of  poor 
little  boys  and  girls,  picking  them  up  out  of  the  streets 
and  helping  them  to  start  in  a  new  life.  I  have  acciden- 
tally met  three  men  who  are  holding  good  positions  and 
claim  they  owe  all  that  they  are  to  John  Westinghouse." 


4  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

This  excellent  man  died  comparatively  young,  and  the 
writer  remembers  hearing  George  Westinghouse  say  that 
the  first  night  in  his  life  that  he  lay  awake  was  the  night 
after  John  died.  George  was  forty-four  years  old  when 
John  died  and  for  twenty-five  years  he  had  led  a  life  that 
might  have  hardened  a  man's  sensibilities. 

George,  too,  had  war  experience  which  had  its  effect 
upon  his  character,  for  it  was  his  privilege  to  live  through 
a  great  historical  period  and  to  take  an  active  part  in  it. 
He  was  in  the  middle  of  his  fifteenth  year  when  the  Civil 
War  broke  out  and  he  promptly  ran  away  to  enlist.  With 
like  promptness  his  father  nipped  his  military  career  then, 
but  two  years  later,  when  he  was  about  sixteen  and  a  half, 
he  was  permitted  to  go'to  the  war  as  an  enlisted  man.  After 
a  little  service  in  the  infantry  and  cavalry  he  became  an 
engineer  officer  in  the  navy.  A  boy  so  young,  going  into 
a  veteran  army,  had  little  chance  for  distinction,  although 
boys  but  little  older,  who  entered  service  even  later,  did 
sometimes  get  to  be  field  officers.  The  chief  interest  in 
this  episode  is  that  it  was  characteristic  of  the  individual 
and  the  nation.  The  lads  of  those  days  rushed  to  the 
colors  with  beautiful  spirit.  Gaily  they  tramped  the  weary 
marches.  Firmly  they  endured  and  fought.  Gladly  they 
volunteered  for  desperate  deeds.  The  records  of  the  War 
Department  show  that  41.4  per  cent  of  the  enrolments  in 
the  Union  army  were  boys  of  eighteen  and  under,  and  77.7 
per  cent  were  twenty-one  and  under.* 

Amongst  these  gallant  and  ardent  youths  were  the 
Westinghouse  brothers.  The  boys  did  not  realize  then 
what  a  great  thing  they  were  doing.  Their  historical  imagi- 
nation was  undeveloped.  They  had  little  capacity  for 
analysis  or  expression.  They  did  their  work  at  the  front 

*  Authority  of  Lieutenant-General  S.  B.  M.  Young,  U.  S.  A. 


A  LOGICAL  PRODUCT  5 

and  then  went  home,  to  college  or  work,  and  their  war  book 
was  closed  and  they  thought  little  about  it  and  talked 
less.  They  did  not  suspect  that  they  were  heroes.  It 
was  quite  the  fashion  to  think  of  serving  one's  country 
as  an  adventure  and  a  privilege  and  duty.  The  hero  talk 
of  the  platform  and  the  newspapers  was  a  later  develop- 
ment. The  boys  of  the  sixties  did  not  know  it,  but  in  mind 
and  character  they  were  lifted  up  and  strengthened  by  con- 
tact with  the  deeds  and  sacrifices  of  war.  They  became 
the  leaders  of  a  nation,  which  was  enriched  and  strength- 
ened beyond  estimate  by  their  war  training.  All  of  this 
Westinghouse  came  to  understand,  as  the  years  went  on, 
but  he  seldom  talked  of  his  war  experiences.  In  an  address 
delivered  a  little  more  than  two  years  before  his  death  he 
said:  "My  early  greatest  capital  was  the  experience  and 
skill  acquired  from  the  opportunity  given  me,  when  I  was 
young,  to  work  with  all  kinds  of  machinery,  coupled  later 
with  lessons  in  that  discipline  to  which  a  soldier  is  required 
to  submit,  and  the  acquirement  of  a  spirit  of  readiness  to 
carry  out  the  instructions  of  superiors." 

Of  the  important  place  that  the  youngest  brother,  Henry 
Herman  Westinghouse,  has  taken  in  the  world,  we  may  not 
speak  here.  Many  of  those  who  read  this  volume  know  it 
well. 

Briefly,  George  Westinghouse  had  an  inheritance  of 
good  blood  and  sound  tradition.  He  was  born  and  reared 
in  an  environment  of  work,  thrift,  and  responsibility.  He 
did  not  happen;  he  was  a  logical  product,  and  ran  true  to 
form.  An  eminent  engineer  who  has  been  in  the  Westing- 
house  service  since  1888,  writing  of  his  early  impressions 
of  Westinghouse,  says:  "He  did  not  appeal  to  me,  even 
then,  as  being  a  wizard,  but  he  seemed  to  be  a  plain  human 
being  with  lots  of  initiative,  with  nerve  to  attempt  diffi- 


6  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

cult  things,  and  money  enough  to  see  them  through  to 
success  or  failure.  He  met  my  ideas  of  what  an  engineer 
should  be.  I  do  not  think  that  my  earliest  impressions 
were  changed  much  in  later  years.  I  acquired  further 
ideas  of  him  as  I  learned  more  about  him,  but  these  were 
additions  rather  than  modifications." 

His  father  had  much  mechanical  skill  and  ingenuity. 
Seven  patents  for  his  inventions  are  now  before  us  and 
there  are  said  to  be  one  or  two  more.  These  all  have  the 
fundamental  qualities  of  the  inventions  of  his  son.  Not 
one  of  the  son's  patents  is  a  flash  out  of  the  blue  sky  or  a 
vision  on  the  horizon.  Every  one  is  calculated  to  meet  a 
situation  that  he  has  seen  in  his  own  practice.  Every  one 
is  for  something  to  be  made  in  his  own  shops  and  no  one 
of  them  was  invented  to  sell  or  as  a  speculation.  Every 
one  is  worked  out  with  such  completeness  of  detail  that  a 
competent  shop  foreman  could  take  the  Patent  Office  draw- 
ings and  specifications  and  build  an  operative  machine. 
In  each  one  we  see  the  engineer  and  the  trained  mechanic. 
This  is  true  of  practically  every  one  of  some  four  hundred 
inventions  patented  by  him.  The  father's  inventions  were 
for  comparatively  simple  mechanisms  but  they  had  the 
same  underlying  qualities  of  practical  use  and  of  thorough- 
ness in  mechanical  design.  They  were  for  horsepowers, 
winnowers,  thrashing  machines,  and  a  sawing  machine,  all 
of  which  were  the  standard  product  of  the  Westinghouse 
shop  at  Schenectady.  The  latest  of  these  patents  was 
issued  in  1865,  the  year  in  which  the  son  returned  from 
his  service  in  the  navy,  and  three  months  before  the  issue 
of  his  own  first  patent. 

In  1856  George  Westinghouse,  Sr.,  established  in  Sche- 
nectady a  shop  for  making  agricultural  machinery,  mill 
machinery,  and  small  steam  engines.  This  shop,  bearing 


HIS  EDUCATION  7 

the  sign  "G.  Westinghouse  &  Co.,"  long  stood  at  the  very 
gate  of  the  great  works  of  the  General  Electric  Company. 
Here  George  Westinghouse,  Jr.,  passed  a  happy  and  busy 
boyhood.  This  shop  was  his  real  academy  and  college; 
his  university  was  the  world.  In  1865  he  was  mustered 
out,  a  veteran  of  the  Civil  War,  an  officer,  not  yet  nineteen 
years  old.  In  September  he  entered  Union  College,  Schenec- 
tady,  as  a  sophomore  and  three  months  later  he  went  back 
to  the  shop.  This  was  the  end  of  his  college  career.  His 
father  was  able  and  willing  to  send  him  through  college, 
but  George  preferred  active  work.  There  is  an  old  "Hands 
Book"  of  G.  Westinghouse  &  Company  now  existing. 
We  find  that  George  began  work  in  the  shop  at  fifty  cents 
a  day  in  May  1860.  He  was  then  thirteen  and  a  half. 
He  worked  into  September,  and  in  the  next  March  began 
work  again  at  seventy-five  cents  a  day  and  kept  at  it  till 
near  the  end  of  September.  In  March  1862,  he  began 
again  at  seventy-five  cents  a  day,  which  was  raised  in 
April  to  eighty-seven  and  one-half  cents,  and  at  this  rate 
he  worked  till  the  end  of  February,  when  he  was  promoted 
to  a  dollar  a  day.  At  the  end  of  April  he  was  raised  to 
one  dollar  twelve  and  one-half  cents  till  the  end  of  Sep- 
tember 1863,  when  the  record  stops,  to  be  taken  up  again 
in  July  1865.  In  the  meantime  Uncle  Sam  had  paid  him 
his  modest  wages.  From  this  little  record  we  can  deduce 
quite  a  number  of  interesting  things,  amongst  them  the  con- 
clusion that  after  George  Westinghouse  was  thirteen  years 
old  he  had  about  a  year  and  a  half  in  school  and  college. 
It  is  not  a  deduction  from  this,  but  it  is  a  fact,  that  he  spoke 
and  wrote  uncommonly  good  English. 

With  the  return  of  George  Westinghouse  to  his  father's 
shop  the  systematic  work  of  his  life  began,  not  to  be  inter- 
rupted until  his  death  forty-nine  years  later.  The  first 


8  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

patent  issued  to  him,  so  far  as  we  find,  was  October  31, 
1865,  for  a  rotary  steam  engine.  His  work  on  this  inven- 
tion had  begun  two  or  three  years  before,  and  he  continued 
to  invent  unceasingly  as  long  as  he  lived.  In  his  last  ill- 
ness he  designed  a  wheel  chair  to  be  operated  by  a  little 
electric  motor.  The  rotary  engine  was  a  favorite  plaything 
for  many  years,  and  the  writer  remembers  seeing  Westing- 
house,  when  he  was  forty-five  years  old,  wearing  a  frock 
coat,  working  over  a  rotary  engine  in  his  shop  in  an  interval 
between  a  board  meeting  and  a  reception.  It  was  the 
equivalent  of  a  rubber  of  bridge,  or  a  game  of  golf.  It  is 
hardly  necessary  to  say  that  the  rotary  engine  never  served 
any  other  purpose  except  that  it  may  have  affected  his 
line  of  thought  when  he  took  up  the  steam  turbine,  as  will 
be  told  in  the  chapter  on  steam  engines.  Westinghouse 
would  not  have  said  that  this  is  exactly  true.  He  used  to 
relate  that  a  small  boy  who  had  made  a  picture  of  a  minister 
and  found  it  unsatisfactory  added  a  tail  and  called  it  a  dog. 
Encouraged  by  this,  Westinghouse  turned  his  rotary  en- 
gine around  and  made  an  excellent  water  meter  of  it,  and 
established  another  industry. 

Patents  for  a  car  replacer  (for  rerailing  a  car  or  engine), 
and  for  a  railroad  frog  followed  in  1867,  1868,  and  1869, 
and  these  inventions  were  the  foundation  of  a  little  busi- 
ness which  seemed  to  a  courageous  young  man  to  justify  his 
marriage,  which  took  place  August  8,  1867,  that  is  before 
he  was  twenty-one.  His  courtship  was  as  impetuous  as 
that  of  Lord  Randolph  Churchill,  who  was  engaged  to  Miss 
Jerome  three  days  after  he  first  saw  her.  Westinghouse 
met  Marguerite  Erskine  Walker  by  chance  on  a  railroad 
train.  That  evening  he  told  his  father  and  mother  that  he 
had  met  the  woman  he  was  going  to  marry.  The  wedding 
soon  followed.  Mrs.  Westinghouse  was  a  devoted  wife  and 


MARRIAGE  AND  FIRST  HOME  9 

survived  her  husband  but  three  months.  For  nearly  forty- 
seven  years  they  lived  together,  and  through  these  years 
affection,  faith,  and  trust  never  flagged.  When  they  were 
on  the  same  continent  there  was  daily  communication  by 
telephone,  after  the  long-distance  telephone  was  developed. 
When  they  were  separated  by  the  Atlantic  there  was  a  daily 
cable  message.  They  died  respectively  in  March  and  June 
1914,  and  are  buried  in  the  National  Cemetery  at  Arling- 
ton. Their  only  child  is  George  Westinghouse,  3d. 

Their  first  home  was  "Solitude,"  in  the  Homewood  dis- 
trict of  Pittsburgh.  Here  a  substantial  old  house  was  added 
to  and  changed  until  it  became  a  commodious  dwelling,  and 
handsome  lawns  and  gardens  grew  with  fortune.  This 
home  was  always  in  commission,  however  long  or  far  they 
might  wander.  It  was  the  seat  of  a  large  and  handsome 
hospitality.  There  were  few  houses  in  the  land  in  which 
one  would  meet  such  a  number  and  variety  of  interesting 
people  as  passed  through  that  simple  and  comfortable  home. 
In  course  of  time  they  established  another  home  at  Lenox, 
Massachusetts,  which  was,  in  later  years,  the  favorite  resi- 
dence of  Mrs.  Westinghouse.  For  a  few  years  they  main- 
tained a  house  in  Washington  during  the  season,  but  it 
never  became  one  of  their  homes. 

The  foundation  of  the  fame  and  fortune  of  George  West- 
inghouse was  the  air  brake.  His  first  brake  patent  was 
issued  April  13,  1869,  he  being  then  twenty-two  and  a 
half  years  old,  and  still  resident  at  Schenectady.  It  was 
reissued  July  29,  1873,  the  inventor  being  then  resident 
in  Pittsburgh.  In  the  years  between  he  had  taken  out 
twenty  or  more  other  patents  on  details  of  brake  apparatus. 
His  attorneys  were  Bakewell,  Christy  &  Kerr.  All  of  these 
gentlemen  (now  dead)  became  eminent  in  patent  law,  but 
they  had  no  greater  professional  pleasure  and  distinction 


10  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

than  this  of  having  helped  at  the  birth  of  the  air  brake. 
The  twenty-odd  air-brake  patents  issued  in  the  four  years 
to  the  middle  of  1873  by  no  means  exhausted  the  foun- 
tains of  invention  in  that  art.  They  continued  to  flow 
copiously  for  years;  the  particulars  will  be  related  in  other 
chapters. 

In  a  system  of  traffic  control  the  relations  of  brakes  and 
signals  are  close,  and  it  was  natural  that  the  attention  of 
Westinghouse  should  have  been  engaged  by  experiments, 
inventions,  and  practice  that  he  saw  developing  in  Eng- 
land and  at  home.  As  early  as  1880  he  acquired  the  Amer- 
ican rights  for  English  patents  for  interlocking  switches 
and  signals,  and  about  the  same  time  he  bought  certain 
American  patents  for  the  control  of  signals  by  track  cir- 
cuits. This  was  the  foundation  of  another  great  industry 
which  will  be  described  in  a  later  chapter.  In  this  field 
Westinghouse  made  radical  and  highly  important  inven- 
tions, taking  out  numerous  patents;  but  so  many  interests 
crowded  upon  him  that,  although  his  productive  activity 
in  signalling  and  interlocking  was  intense  for  a  few  years, 
the  period  was  comparatively  short.  In  one  year,  1881, 
for  instance,  we  find  six  patents  in  signalling  and  interlock- 
ing, one  of  them  fundamental  and  revolutionary.  In  the 
same  year  we  find  ten  brake  patents,  one  for  a  telephone 
switch  and  four  in  other  arts — twenty-one  patents  in  one 
year. 

The  eleven  years  1880-1890  inclusive  brought  many 
great  things  and  were  a  period  of  prodigious  activity.  In 
those  years  the  Westinghouse  Brake  Company,  Limited 
(British)  was  started;  the  Union  Switch  &  Signal  Company 
was  launched;  the  natural-gas  episode  began,  and  the  Phila- 
delphia Company  was  formed;  the  Westinghouse  Machine 
Company,  the  Westinghouse  Electric  Company,  and  the 


A  GREAT  DECADE  11 

Westinghouse  Electric  Company,  Limited  (British)  were 
started;  the  quick-action  brake  was  produced,  and  thus 
the  one  great  crisis  in  the  history  of  the  air  brake  was  met 
and  triumphantly  passed;  and,  perhaps  most  important 
of  all,  Westinghouse  revolutionized  the  electric  art  by  his 
vision  of  the  possibilities  of  the  alternating  current.  The 
particulars  of  all  these  deeds  will  be  set  forth  in  their  proper 
places.  Here  we  only  ask  attention  to  the  capacity  for 
work,  the  boldness  of  conception,  and  the  marvellous  ac- 
tivity of  creative  imagination  shown  by  Westinghouse  from 
the  beginning  of  his  thirty-fourth  year  to  the  end  of  his 
forty-fourth.  He  did  many  things  and  great  things  in  the 
twenty-four  years  that  followed,  but  it  is  not  an  unreason- 
able suggestion  that  those  eleven  years  were  the  years  of 
his  greatest  creative  power.  In  those  years  he  took  out 
134  patents,  an  average  of  over  one  patent  a  month,  and  he 
stimulated  and  directed  the  work  of  many  other  inventors. 
Meanwhile  he  began  and  carried  forward  the  financial  and 
administrative  organization  of  several  companies,  each 
one  of  which  might  have  absorbed  the  energies  of  an  ordi- 
nary man.  His  commercial  and  technical  activities  were 
felt  in  England  and  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  and  he 
established  personal  relations  with  philosophers,  as  well  as 
with  financial  and  business  men,  in  many  countries,  and 
he  was 'not  yet  forty-five.  Bacon  says:  "A  man  that  is 
Young  in  Yeares  may  be  old  in  Houres,  if  he  have  lost  no 
Time.  But  that  happeneth  rarely.  Generally,  youth  is  like 
the  first  Cogitations,  not  so  Wise  as  the  Second.  For  there  is 
a  youth  in  thoughts  as  well  as  in  Ages.  And  yet  the  Inven- 
tion of  Young  Men  is  more  lively  than  that  of  Old:  And 
Imaginations  streame  into  their  mindes  better  and,  as  it  were 
more  divinely."  It  would  be  hard  to  say  when  imagina- 
tions streamed  most  divinely  into  the  mind  of  Westinghouse. 


WESTINGHOUSE  ASSOCIATED  COMPANIES 

CHRONOLOGICALLY  ARRANGED 

1870  1880  1890  1900  1910  192 

\VESTINGHOUSE  AIR  BRAKE  CO. 
WESTINGHOUSE  EUROPEAN  BRAKE  CO. 
COMPACNIE  DES  FREINS  WESTINGHOUSE 
AMERICAN  BRAKE  CO, 
WESTINGHOUSE  BRAKE  CO.,  LTD. 
WESTINGHOUSE  MACHINE  CO. 
WESTINCHOUSE  FOUNDRY  CO. 
UNION  SWITCH  &  SIGNAL  CO. 
WESTINGHOUSE  CO.  (SCHENECTADY) 
PHILADELPHIA  COMPANY 
WESTINGHOUSE  BREMSEN  GESELLSCHAFT 
WESTINGHOUSE,  CHURCH,  KERR  &  CO. 
SAWYER-MAN  ELECTRIC  CO. 
WESTINCHOUSE  ELECTRIC  CO. 
CONSOLIDATED  ELECTRIC  LIGHT  CO. 
UNITED  ELECTRIC  LIGHT  &  POWER  CO. 
FUEL  GAS  AND  ELECTRICAL  ENG'R'G  CO. 
EAST  PITTSBURGH  IMPROVEMENT  CO. 
WESTINGHOUSE  ELECTRIC  &  MANUFACTURING  CO. 
WESTINGHOUSE  ELECTRIC  CO..  LTD.  (LONDON) 
BRYANT  ELECTRIC  COMPANY 
PITTSBURGH  METER  CO. 
WATERHOUSE  ELECTRIC  CO. 

PERKINS  ELECTRIC  SWITCH  MANUFACTURING  CO. 
STANDARD  UNDERGROUND  CABLE  CO, 
STANDARD  CAR  HEATING  A  VENTILATING  CO.] 
R.  D.  NUTTALL  CO. 
WESTINGHOUSE  CLASS  CO. 
WORLD'S  FAIR  EQUIPMENT  CO. 
ELECTRO-MAGNETIC  TRACTION  CO.1 
SECURITY  INVESTMENT  CO. 
EMERY  PNEUMATIC  LUBRICATOR  COT 
FRENCH  WESTINCHOUSE  ELECTRIC  CO. 
MANHATTAN  GENERAL  CONSTRUCTION  CO. 
WALKER  ELECTRIC  CO. 

SOCIETE"  ANONYME  WESTINGHOUSE  (RUSSIA) 

BRITISH  WESTINCHOUSE  ELECTRIC  *  MFG.  CO. 

WESTINGHOUSE  PATENT  BUREAU  (LONDON) 

NERNST  LAMP  CO. 

CLYDE  VALLEY  ELECTRIC  POWER  CO.,  LTD. 

TRACTION  &  POWER  SECURITIES  CO. 

WESTINCHOUSE  AUTOMATIC  AIR  *  STEAM  COUPLER  CO. 

SOCIETY  ANONYME  WESTINCHOUSE  (FRANCE) 

WESTINCHOUSE  ELEKTRICITAETS-CESELLSCHAFT.  m.  b.  H. 

WESTINGHOUSE  TRACTION  BRAKE  CO. 

COOPER  HEWITT  ELECTRIC  CO. 

TRAFFORD  WATER  CO. 

WESTINGHOUSE  INTERWORKS  RAILWAY  CO.' 

McCANDLESS  LAMP  CO. 

CANADIAN  WESTINGHOUSE  CO.,  LTD. 

LAURENTIDE  MICA  CO.,  LTD. 

COMPAGNIA  ITAUANA  WE3TINCHOUSK  DSI  FRENI 


12 


WESTINGHOUSE  ASSOCIATED  COMPANIES 

CHRONOLOGICALLY  ARRANGED 

1870  1880  1690  1900  1910  1920 

CIE.  INT.  PR.  LE  CHAUF'GE  DES  CHEM'S  DE  FER  SYSTEME  HEINTZ,  LTD. 
WESTINGHOUSE  METAL  FILAMENT  LAMP  CO. 
SOCIETE  ELECTRIQUE  WESTINGHOUSE  DE  RUSSIE 
UNITED  PUMP  &  POWER  COMPANY 
NATIONAL  BRAKE  &  ELECTRIC  CO. 
WESTINGHOUSE  COOPER  HEWITT  CO..  LTD. 

WESTINCHOUSE  METALLFADEN  GLUHLAMPENFABRIK  GESELLSCHAFT 
MILWAUKEE  LOCOMOTIVE  MANUFACTURING  CO. 
SOCIETA  ITAUANA  WESTINGHOUSE 
WESTINCHOUSE  BRAKE  CO.  LTD.  (AUSTRALASIA) 
McKENZIE-HOLLAND  &.  WESTINGHOUSE  POWER  SIGNAL  CO..  LTD. 
WESTINGHOUSE  LAMP  CO. 
BERCMANN  ELECTRIC  WERKE,  A.  G. 

SOCIETE  ANONYME  PR.  SEXPLOITATION  DES  PROCEDES  WESTINGHOUSE  LEBLANC 
SOCIETE  HONGROISE  D'AUTO  SYSTEME  WESTINCHOUSB 
TRAFFORD  REAL  ESTATE  CO. 
WESTINGHOUSE  FRICTION  DRAFT  GEAR  CO. 
PITTSBURGH  HIGH  VOLTAGE  INSULATOR  CO. 
WESTINGHOUSE  AIR  SPRING  CO. 

COMPAGNIE  DES  LAMPES  A  FILAMENTS  METAU.IQUES 
COMP.  POUR  LES  APPLICATIONS  DES  RAYONS  ULTRA-VIOLET    (FRANCE) 
SOC.  INT.  POUR  LES  APPLICATIONS  DES  RAYONS  ULTRA-VIOLET    (BELGIUM) 
COPEMAN  ELECTRIC  STOVE  CO. 

WESTINGHOUSE  PACIFIC  COAST  BRAKE  CO. 

ELECTRIC  PROPERTIES  CORPORATION 

WESTINCHOUSE  NORSK  ELEKTRISK  AKTIENSEtSKAP 

WESTINGHOUSE  GEAR  &  DYNAMOMETER  CO. 

LOCOMOTIVE  STOKER  CO. 

CANADIAN  CONCRETE  PRODUCTS  CO..  LTD. 

NATIONAL  STEEL  FOUNDRIES 

KRANTZ  MANUFACTURING  CO.,  INC. 

FOUNTAIN  ELECTRICAL  FLOOR  BOX  CORP. 

PAGE  -STORM  DROP  FORGE  CO. 

NEW  ENGLAND  WESTINGHOUSE  CO. 

WESTINGHOUSE  ELECTRIC  EXPORT  CO. 

J.  STEVENS  ARMS  CO. 

MER1DEN  FIRE  ARMS  CO. 

TURTLE  CREEK  &,  ALLEGHENY  VALLEY  R.  R.  CO. 

WESTINCHOUSE  ELECTRIC  PRODUCTS  CO. 

SOUTH  PHILADELPHIA  CO. 

WESTINCHOUSE  ELECTRIC  INTERNATIONAL  COMPANY 

INTERBOROUCH  IMPROVEMENT  CO. 

FRANKLIN  ELECTRIC  MANUFACTURING  CO. 

EAST  PITTSBURGH  *  WILMERDING  COAL  CO. 

WESTINCHOUSE  AIR  BRAKE  HOME  BUILDING  CO. 

GEORGE  CUTTER  CO. 
NATIONAL  UTILITIES  CORPORATION 
WESTINGHOUSE  UNION  BATTERY  CO. 
INTERNATIONAL  RADIO  TELEGRAPH  COMPANY,  THE 
MANSFIELD  VITREOUS  ENAMELING  COMPANY.  THE 
WESTINCHOUSE  BRAKE  &  SAXBY  SIGNAL  CO.,  LTD. 

TOE  DATE  OP  ORGAN  1ZAT 

2==r™a8 


14  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

We  have  no  yardstick  by  which  to  measure  them.  They 
are  only  partly  revealed  in  his  inventions;  and  inventions, 
in  the  narrow  sense  of  the  word,  were  not  by  any  means 
the  greatest  of  his  imaginations.  We  shall  see,  as  we  go 
on,  conceptions  and  visions  which  have  affected  mankind 
far  more  than  anything  that  he  invented.  But  the  number 
of  his  patented  inventions  gives  us  a  quick  notion  of  his 
fertility.  We  have  seen  that  in  an  amazing  eleven  years 
he  took  out  more  than  a  patent  a  month;  but  for  forty- 
eight  years  he  took  out  a  patent  every  month  and  a  half. 

A  quick  and  comprehensive  view  of  the  extent  of  his 
work  in  organizing  companies  is  given  in  the  table  of  West- 
inghouse  companies  inserted  here.  The  table  includes  a 
very  few  companies  which  Westinghouse  did  not  establish, 
and  in  which  he  personally  or  through  his  other  companies 
never  owned  a  majority  of  the  stock.  In  those  companies 
he  did  have  investments  of  more  or  less  importance,  and  he 
did,  during  their  formative  years,  exercise  great  and  even 
controlling  influence.  He  served  them  as  president  and 
director,  or  perhaps  with  no  office  but  with  money  or  credit. 
He  was  never  an  idle  passenger  in  any  enterprise.  A  pic- 
ture of  his  life  would  not  be  complete  without  a  glimpse 
of  such  companies,  but  it  does  not  seem  wise  to  take  the 
reader's  time  or  to  divert  his  attention  by  circumstantial 
accounts  of  them.  One  of  the  more  important  of  these 
companies  of  temporary  interest  to  him  is  the  Standard 
Underground  Cable  Company,  of  which  Westinghouse  was 
president  ten  years,  1886-1896,  and  which  is  now  the  largest 
maker  of  electric  wires  and  cables  in  the  United  States,  with 
an  annual  gross  business  of  about  $35,000,000.  The  present 
president,  Mr.  Joseph  W.  Marsh,  says:  "The  value  of  Mr. 
Westinghouse's  connection  with  the  company  soon  made 
itself  felt  in  increased  business  and  the  changing  of  annual 


VARIED  ACTIVITIES  15 

losses  into  profits.  Although  his  official  connection  with  the 
company  terminated  in  1896  he  always  manifested  a  friendly 
and  helpful  interest  in  its  progress  during  the  remainder  of 
his  life,  and  such  interest  on  his  part  never  failed  to  trans- 
late itself  in  tangible  and  practical  ways  that  were  of  great 
value." 

As  soon  as  the  air  brake  was  fairly  under  way  in  America 
Westinghouse  took  it  to  England,  and  within  ten  years, 
that  is,  before  he  was  thirty-five,  he  had  organized  companies 
and  established  shops  in  England,  France,  and  Russia.  He 
was  famous  and  had  a  fortune  sufficient  for  his  moderate 
needs.  We  have  taken  the  years  1880  and  1890  as  possibly 
the  period  of  Westinghouse's  greatest  creative  power;  but 
from  what  has  just  been  said  it  is  seen  that  the  earlier  dec- 
ade ending  with  1880  was  rich  in  accomplishment,  but  it 
was  confined  mostly  to  the  brake. 

After  1890  the  years  were  crowded  with  great  events. 
The  crisis  of  1893  almost  swamped  the  Electric  Company, 
but  it  emerged  safely.  The  company  secured  the  contract 
for  lighting  the  Columbian  Exposition  of  1893  at  Chicago 
and  made  a  brilliant  technical  success.  This  encouraged 
the  development  of  the  company's  incandescent  lamp 
industry,  and,  what  was  much  more  important,  it  had  a 
great  influence  on  the  direction  and  progress  of  the  broader 
activities  of  Westinghouse  and  his  engineers  in  the  electri- 
cal field.  It  affected  his  thought  and  it  strengthened  his 
position  in  the  fierce  struggle  just  opening  up.  In  Oc- 
tober 1893,  the  company  took  the  contract  for  the  first 
electric  generators  at  Niagara  Falls.  This  was  a  revolu- 
tionary event  in  the  development  of  the  electric  art — ro- 
mantic in  conception  and  dramatic  in  execution.  Many 
eminent  men  of  various  nations  took  part  in  the  prelimi- 
nary studies,  and  the  foundations  of  some  great  reputations 


16  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

in  electrical  engineering  were  laid  there.  The  world-mean- 
ing of  the  episode  was  that  the  question  of  the  distribution 
and  use  of  power  through  the  agency  of  the  alternating 
electric  current  was  settled  for  all  time.  For  Westinghouse 
this  was  a  personal  victory;  some  estimate  of  its  meaning 
to  mankind  will  be  attempted  later  in  this  volume. 

We  may  now  turn  back  a  few  years.  Late  in  1883  West- 
inghouse became  interested  in  the  production  and  distribu- 
tion of  natural  gas,  and  in  1884  the  Philadelphia  Company 
was  formed  to  carry  on  that  industry.  In  a  few  years  he 
took  out  thirty-eight  gas  patents,  mostly  for  means  of  dis- 
tribution and  control,  and  he  practically  created  a  new  art. 
These  were  amongst  the  134  patents  taken  out  in  the  years 
1880-1890. 

It  was  a  logical  consequence  of  the  natural-gas  episode 
that  Westinghouse  should  become  interested  in  gas  en- 
gines and  in  the  manufacture  of  fuel  gas.  The  Westing- 
house  Machine  Company,  founded  by  a  younger  brother, 
Henry  Herman  Westinghouse,  and  later  taken  over  by 
George,  developed  and  built  gas  engines  of  great  size  and 
in  large  numbers.  They  also  built  gas  producers  with  some 
success,  but  the  producer-gas  enterprise  was  disappoint- 
ing. 

About  1895  Westinghouse  became  interested  in  the  steam 
turbine  and  this  was  an  absorbing  interest  till  his  death. 
He  continued  incessantly  to  study,  invent,  and  design, 
and  his  work  profoundly  influenced  the  development  of 
the  art.  Eventually  building  turbines  became  much  the 
largest  part  of  the  work  of  the  Westinghouse  Machine  Com- 
pany, and,  working  with  the  Electric  Company,  they  built 
many  turbo-generator  units  for  power  houses,  some  of 
them  of  immense  size.  The  marine  side  of  the  industry 
developed  more  slowly  but  it  is  now  very  important.  The 


SUNDRY  HONORS  17 

efficient  speed  of  a  propeller  is  low;  the  efficient  speed  of 
a  turbine  is  high;  consequently,  great  efficiency  cannot  be 
got  from  a  direct-connected  unit.  Two  possibilities  were 
obvious,  to  modify  the  propeller  or  to  interpose  between 
the  turbine  and  Jiie  propeller  a  reduction  gear.  Westing- 
house  made  many  ingenious,  interesting,  and  costly  pro- 
peller experiments  which  so  far  have  been  of  no  practical 
value.  He  took  up  simultaneously  (about  1909)  a  reduc- 
tion gear  invented  by  Admiral  Melville,  U.  S.  N.,  and  Mr. 
MacAlpine — a  novel  and  highly  interesting  conception. 
This  gear  is  now  much  used  in  turbine-driven  ships  of 
the  navy. 

In  1905  came  the  explosion  in  the  Equitable  Life  Assur- 
ance Society,  which  led  to  the  purchase  of  the  stock  by 
Mr.  Ryan  and  the  appointment  of  three  trustees  to  control 
the  reorganization  and  management  of  that  great  concern 
of  international  importance.  The  trustees  chosen  were 
Grover  Cleveland,  Morgan  J.  O'Brien,  and  George  Westing- 
house.  As  a  tribute  to  character  this  was  one  of  the  greatest 
honors  that  Westinghouse  ever  received,  although  he  had 
been  recognized  hi  many  ways.  He  was  a  Doctor  of  Phil- 
osophy, Union  College;  Doctor  of  Engineering,  Koenig- 
liche  Technische  Hochschule,  Berlin;  decorated  with  the 
Legion  of  Honor,  the  Order  of  the  Crown  of  Italy,  and 
the  Order  of  Leopold,  Belgium.  He  received  the  Grashof 
medal,  perhaps  the  highest  engineering  honor  in  Germany, 
and  the  John  Fritz  medal,  a  great  engineering  honor  in 
America,  and  the  Edison  medal  of  the  American  Institute 
of  Electrical  Engineers.  He  was  one  of  the  two  honorary 
members  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science  and  was  an  honorary  member  and  served  a 
term  as  president  of  The  American  Society  of  Mechanical 
Engineers.  He  declined  honorary  degrees  from  several 


18  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

colleges  in  America.  One  only  heard  of  these  honors  by 
accident;  Westinghouse  shrank  instinctively  from  titles. 
"George  Westinghouse"  was  distinction  enough  for  him. 
There  was  unconscious  recognition  of  this  distinction  in 
a  press  cable  to  Europe  giving  the  names  of  the  trustees 
chosen  for  the  Equitable  Life:  "Grover  Cleveland,  ex- 
President  of  the  United  States;  Morgan  J.  O'Brien,  Justice 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York,  and  George  Westing- 
house." 

In  the  years  from  1893  to  1907  the  business  of  the  nu- 
merous Westinghouse  companies  grew  enormously.  It  is 
estimated  that  50,000  people  were  employed  in  production 
and  distribution.  The  Westinghouse  shops  were  scattered 
from  San  Francisco  to  St.  Petersburg.  In  all  these  activi- 
ties Westinghouse  had  a  constant  part  in  executive  conduct 
as  well  as  in  planning  and  administration — perhaps  a  part 
too  close  and  constant  for  the  best  results.  He  was  a  pro- 
line  inventor,  a  bold  and  resourceful  financier,  a  man  of 
capacious  imagination  and  foresight  as  to  things  to  be  done, 
and  a  powerful  executive;  tut  perhaps  he  was  not  a  great 
administrator.  Lord  Fisher,  paradoxical  "Jackey,"  said 
that  "no  great  commander  is  ever  a  good  administrator." 
One  may  guess  that  he  had  in  mind  the  thought  that  a 
"good"  administrator  is  too  much  bound  by  the  formulas 
of  seniority  and  precedence,  for  he  also  said:  "Some  day 
the  Empire  will  go  down  because  it  is  Buggins's  turn," 
and  at  another  time  he  said:  "Favoritism  is  the  secret  of 
efficiency."  Doubtless  Lord  Fisher  would  have  called 
Westinghouse  a  great  commander.  Whether  or  not  he  was 
a  great  administrator  is  debated  amongst  those  who  knew 
him  best  and  appreciated  him  most.  At  any  rate,  some- 
times the  administrative  machinery  absorbed  more  of  his 
time  and  thought  than  it  ought.  But  in  spite  of  an  over- 


NEVER  BEATEN  19 

burden  of  administrative  care,  his  teeming  mind  went  on 
through  these  later  years  inventing,  contriving,  and  or- 
ganizing. 

In  1907  came  the  tragedy  of  Westinghouse's  life.  The 
great  panic  caused  the  failure  and  receivership  of  the  Elec- 
tric Company,  the  Machine  Company,  and  some  minor 
companies,  but  did  not  affect  the  Air  Brake  Company 
or  the  Union  Switch  &  Signal  Company.  A  reorganiza- 
tion was  eventually  brought  about,  based  upon  a  brilliant 
project  devised  by  Westinghouse,  but  the  actual  control 
of  the  Electric  Company  passed  out  of  his  hands,  and  in 
less  than  four  years  he  ceased  to  have  any  official  relations 
with  the  company.  It  was  a  terrific  blow.  The  writer 
remembers  passing,  one  night,  the  great  works  at  East 
Pittsburgh  brilliantly  lit  up.  As  we  came  in  sight  of  the 
electric  sign  "Westinghouse  Electric  &  Manufacturing 
Company,"  Westinghouse  turned  his  face  toward  the  bleak 
hills  on  the  other  side  of  the  way  with  an  expression  so 
pathetic,  so  tragic,  as  to  wring  one's  heart.  Not  a  word 
was  spoken  for  a  long  time. 

At  lunch  one  day  either  Mr.  Charles  Terry  or  the  writer 
told  Westinghouse  that  some  one  said  he  never  knew 
when  he  was  beaten.  Perhaps  he  took  this  as  some  re- 
flection on  his  intelligence.  He  flashed  up:  "I  should  know 
if  I  were  beaten — but  I  never  was  beaten."  And  he  never 
was.  The  game  might  be  lost,  but  the  indomitable  spirit 
was  not  beaten.  The  short  years  of  his  life  that  remained 
after  the  tragedy  were  filled  with  the  same  unceasing  ac- 
tivity and  the  same  undying  hope.  The  affairs  of  the 
Machine  Company,  the  development  of  the  steam  turbine 
and  of  the  reduction  gear,  the  invention  and  development 
of  an  air  spring  for  automobiles,  and  various  minor  inter- 
ests completely  filled  the  busy  hours  of  the  long  days. 


20  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

Late  in  1913  the  magnificent  structure  gave  way.  An  or- 
ganic disease  of  the  heart  developed.  The  quizzical  humor 
still  lived,  the  inventive  spirit  still  was  active,  but  the 
body  slowly  faded  away,  and  on  March  12, 1914,  he  died. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  AIR  BRAKE  . 

WE  do  not  go  far  in  the  life  of  Westinghouse  before  we 
realize  that  he  made  two  fundamental  contributions  to 
civilization : 

First,  he  advanced  the  art  of  transportation  by  the  in- 
vention and  development  of  the  air  brake. 

Second,  he  advanced  the  manufacture  of  power  by  the 
development  of  the  use  of  the  alternating  current  in  the 
distributing  and  applying  power  by  electricity. 

Just  what  we  mean  by  "manufacture  of  power"  will  be 
discussed  later;  of  course  we  do  not  mean  creation  of  power. 
The  improvement  of  transportation  and  the  manufac- 
ture of  power  have  been  amongst  the  major  elements  in 
human  progress.  Of  that,  too,  more  will  be  said  later. 
It  is  enough  to  say  here  that  Westinghouse  helped  the 
evolution  of  transportation  by  an  early  set  of  activities 
and  he  helped  the  manufacture  of  power  by  a  later  set  of 
activities.  We  shall  now  consider  the  air  brake  as  the 
first  and  most  important  of  the  activities  in  the  field  of 
transportation. 

The  life  of  George  Westinghouse  illustrates  and  confirms 
the  statement  that  the  faculties  of  observation  and  reflec- 
tion necessarily  precede  invention.  Keen  observation  and 
intense  reflection  are  the  stepping-stones  by  which  the  in- 
ventive mind  rises  into  creative  effort.  Westinghouse  was 
a  close  observer,  and  the  results  of  his  observations,  stored 
in  a  powerful  memory,  were  the  mental  grist  that  his  active 

21 


22  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

mind  worked  over,  sometimes  for  years,  until  it  came  forth 
in  some  form  to  contribute  to  the  safety,  happiness,  and 
support  of  his  fellow  men. 

Westinghouse's  earlier  inventions  were  important  in 
setting  the  current  of  his  career  and  developing  his  char- 
acteristic tendencies,  and  he  came  to  be  one  of  the  most 
prolific  of  inventors.  In  forty-eight  years  he  took  out  some 
400  patents  in  many  arts;  that  is  to  say  a  patent  every 
month  and  a  half  of  his  working  life.  He  developed  the 
use  of  natural  gas  and  took  out  thirty-eight  patents  in  that 
art.  He  did  important  work  in  power  signalling  and  inter- 
locking. He  made  many  inventions  in  steam  engineering. 
When  we  look  over  his  life  we  discover  that  his  labors 
for  the  advancement  of  the  electric  science  and  art  may 
have  done  quite  as  much  for  the  progress  of  civilization 
as  the  development  of  the  air  brake,  but  he  is  best  known 
to  mankind  by  the  brake.  It  is  by  this  that  the  people 
know  him,  and  this  is  always  first  mentioned  in  his  recog- 
nitions and  honors  from  governments  and  learned  societies. 
As  we  proceed,  some  effort  will  be  made  to  point  out  the 
absolute  and  relative  place  in  history  of  his  various  doings, 
but  at  the  moment  we  are  concerned  only  with  the  story 
of  the  brake. 

We  have  said  elsewhere  that  each  of  the  inventions  of 
Westinghouse  was  made  to  meet  some  need  that  he  saw. 
The  occurrence  that  led  to  the  invention  of  the -air  brake 
was  the  mischief  that  followed  a  head-on  collision  which 
might  have  been  avoided  had  means  for  the  prompt  and 
powerful  application  of  brakes  been  available.  This  inci- 
dent happened  on  the  railway  between  Schenectady  and 
Troy  in  1866. 

The  first  form  of  power  brake  that  occurred  to  Westing- 
house  was  a  buffer  brake,  the  brakes  on  each  individual 


THE  DAWN  OF  THE  BRAKE  23 

car  being  automatically  applied  by  impact  when  the  brakes 
were  set  on  the  locomotive.  After  some  shop  experiments, 
this  idea  was  abandoned  for  a  design  that  contemplated 
a  coupled  chain  running  through  the  length  of  the  train, 
by  which  the  car  brakes  could  be  applied  through  the  manip- 
ulation of  some  power  device  on  the  locomotive.  Visiting 
Chicago  with  this  in  mind,  he  found  a  chain  brake  installed 
on  the  Aurora  Accommodation  of  the  Chicago,  Burlington 
&  Quincy  Railroad  which,  in  a  large  measure,  anticipated 
his  own  idea  and  at  the  same  time  demonstrated  its  in- 
herent weakness.  This  brake,  patented  in  1862,  was  the 
invention  of  Augustine  I.  Ambler,  of  Milwaukee.  His  Chi- 
cago experience  led  Westinghouse  to  design  a  chain  brake 
in  which  a  steam  cylinder  under  the  locomotive  displaced 
Ambler's  clumsy  friction-drive  windlass  for  tightening  the 
brake  chain. 

This  idea  was  superseded  by  a  more  practical  one,  through 
the  thought  that,  in  order  to  avoid  excessive  slack,  each 
car  must  have  its  independent  brake  cylinder,  supplied 
with  steam  from  the  locomotive  by  a  continuous  pipe  with 
the  necessary  flexible  couplings  between  the  cars.  At  this 
stage  of  his  study,  when  he  was  wrestling  with  the  problem 
of  condensation,  occurred  the  interesting  and  almost  roman- 
tic incident  of  the  magazine  subscription  which  he  made 
while  at  work  in  the  Westinghouse  shop  at  Schenectady 
at  the  solicitation  of  a  young  woman,  evidently  for  per- 
sonal reasons  and  not  because  of  any  particular  interest  in 
the  magazine.  As  it  happened,  this  purchase  turned  out 
to  be  one  of  the  most  important  he  ever  made,  although 
he  never  saw  the  fair  agent  again.  The  first  or  second  num- 
ber of  the  magazine  received  brought  to  his  eager  attention 
an  illustrated  article  on  the  Mont  Cenis  tunnel,  then  under 
construction.  Both  headings  of  this  tunnel,  then  3000  or 


24  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

more  feet  from  the  entrances,  were  being  driven  by  rock 
drills  worked  by  compressed  air.  This  gave  him  his  cue 
in  a  flash,  and  thereafter  his  efforts  were  centered  on  brake 
designs  in  which  the  operating  force  was  compressed  air 
as  the  medium  for  transmitting  power  from  the  locomotive 
to  the  brake  mechanism  on  each  car.  Acting  with  his  usual 
promptness,  he  embodied  his  new  ideas  in  a  set  of  drawings, 
and  at  once  began  to  look  for  financial  help  to  defray  the 
cost  of  making  the  apparatus  needed  for  a  practical  demon- 
stration. As  he  travelled  about  the  country  soliciting  orders 
for  his  railway  frog,  he  had  opportunities  to  present  the 
matter  of  his  air  brake  to  many  railway  officials  whom  he 
endeavored  to  interest  in  his  invention,  and  whose  coopera- 
tion he  sought  for  its  development.  As  he  himself  says: 
"None  of  those  approached  appeared  to  have  faith  in  the 
idea,  though  I  afterward  found  that  the  acquaintances 
made  and  the  many  discussions  I  had  had  with  railway 
people  were  of  great  advantage  later  in  the  introduction 
of  the  air  brake  on  the  railways  with  which  they  were  con- 
nected." 

Meanwhile,  on  July  10,  1868,  he  filed  a  caveat  in  the 
Patent  Office  which  marked  the  beginning  of  a  long  series 
of  patents  relating  to  the  air-brake  art,  totalling  103  be- 
tween the  year  1869  and  the  year  1907,  when  he  filed 
his  last  air-brake  patent.  In  this  first  caveat  Westing- 
house  describes  himself  as  George  Westinghouse,  Junior,  of 
Schenectady,  New  York,  but  the  affidavit  accompanying 
it  was  made  before  Alderman  Nicholson  at  Pittsburgh  on 
June  24,  1868,  and  the  specifications  are  attested  by  A.  S. 
Nicholson  and  George  H.  Christy,  the  last  mentioned  of 
whom  was  from  that  time  forward  until  his  death  in  1909 
one  of  Westinghouse's  patent  counsel.  Earlier  in  1868, 
Westinghouse  had  spent  considerable  time  in  Pittsburgh, 


WHO  INVENTED  THE  AIR  BRAKE?      25 

where  his  railway  frog  was  being  manufactured  by  Anderson 
&  Cook,  and  had  made  an  arrangement  with  Mr.  Ralph 
Baggaley  of  that  city  to  bear  the  cost  of  making  the  first 
brake  apparatus. 

WHO  INVENTED  THE  AIR  BRAKE? 

As  we  take  up  a  description  of  the  apparatus  and  an  ac- 
count of  its  introduction,  let  us  note  that  the  first  air-brake 
patent  of  George  Westinghouse  was  88,929,  dated  April  13, 
1869.  This  patent  was  reissued  July  29,  1873,  as  5504. 
It  is  in  the  proceedings  and  decision  of  the  U.  S.  Circuit 
Court  of  Appeals  for  the  Northern  District  of  New  York 
in  the  suit  brought  by  George  Westinghouse,  Jr.,  against 
the  Gardner  &  Ransom  Air  Brake  Company,  based  prin- 
cipally on  this  reissued  patent,  that  the  whole  question  of 
Westinghouse's  claim  to  be  the  original  inventor  of  the  first 
form  of  air  brake  is  thoroughly  thrashed  out  and  judicially 
determined.  Voluminous  testimony  was  taken  from  April 
to  November  1874.  The  case  was  tried  at  Cleveland,  Ohio, 
before  Justice  Swayne  and  Judge  Walker,  and  from  the 
court's  decision,  handed  down  June  16,  1875,  the  following 
excerpts  are  taken: 

The  case  was  argued  exhaustively,  and  at  great  length; 
by  able  and  eminent  counsel.  The  importance  of  the  case, 
and  the  large  interests  involved,  as  well  as  the  value  of  the 
invention  itself  to  the  patentee  and  to  the  public  at  large, 
fully  justified  the  elaborate  discussion  which  the  case  re- 
ceived, and  rendered  necessary  the  careful  consideration 
which  we  have  given  to  it.  The  printed  record  covers  about 
750  pages;  and  nearly  thirty  patents  and  provisional  speci- 
fications offered  in  evidence  by  the  defendant  on  the  issue 
of  novelty  and  priority  of  invention,  and  not  included  in 
the  printed  record,  were  discussed  at  the  hearing. 

The  issue  of  novelty  was   most   vigorously  contested. 


26  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

As  already  stated,  nearly  thirty  United  States  and  Eng- 
lish patents,  and  English  provisional  specifications,  were 
offered  in  evidence  on  part  of  the  defendant  and  voluminous 
expert  testimony  was  taken  with  reference  thereto. 

As  to  all  of  these  in  their  bearings  on  the  claims  last 
above  referred  to,  our  opinion  is  the  same  as  above  stated. 
They  go  to  show  that  Westinghouse  was  not  the  first  to 
conceive  the  idea  of  operating  railway  brakes  by  air  pres- 
sure, and  that  he  was  not  the  inventor  of  the  larger  part 
of  the  devices  employed  for  such  purposes.  But  such  fact 
does  not  detract  at  all  from  his  merit  or  rights  as  a  success- 
ful inventor.  The  organisms  covered  by  the  fourth  and  fifth 
claims  of  his  patent  reissue  5504,  seem  to  have  been  entirely 
new  with  him,  and  the  incorporation  of  these  elements, 
together  with  that  of  graduating  the  air  pressure  in  the 
brake  cylinders — also  shown  to  be  new  and  of  the  highest 
importance  and  utility — in  claims  1,  2,  3,  and  6,  with  other 
substantial  and  material  differences  not  necessary  to  enu- 
merate, fully  substantiate  his  pretensions  as  an  original 
and  meritorious  inventor,  and  entitle  him  as  such  to  the 
amplest  protection  of  the  law. 

Suggestive  as  these  prior  patents  and  provisional  speci- 
fications may  have  been,  they  do  not  any  of  them  embody 
that  which  Westinghouse  has  invented  and  claimed,  and 
a  prior  description  of  a  part  cannot  invalidate  a  patent  for 
the  whole. 

So  far  as  appears  from  the  testimony  in  this  case,  none 
of  the  alleged  prior  inventions  of  air-brake  apparatus  have 
ever  successfully  been  applied  to  practical  use,  and  when 
we  consider  the  immense  importance  of  the  introduction  of 
the  air  brake  on  railroads,  and  the  incalculable  benefit  which 
it  has  conferred  on  the  public  in  the  readiness  and  certainty 
with  which  trains  can  thereby  be  controlled,  and  the  com- 
parative immunity  from  accidents  thus  secured,  and  also 
the  number  of  devices  which  have  been  patented  for  this 
purpose,  in  connection  with  the  fact  that  Westinghouse 
was  the  first,  so  far  as  appears  in  the  record  and  proofs, 
to  put  an  air  brake  into  successful  actual  use — such  con- 
siderations only  strengthen  and  confirm  the  soundness  of 


WHO  INVENTED  THE  AIR  BRAKE?  27 

the  conclusions  to  which  a  careful  examination  of  these 
prior  patents  has  led  us — that  there  are  substantial  and 
essential  differences  between  these  prior  patents  and  the 
Westinghouse  apparatus,  and  that  to  these  differences  we 
may  justly  attribute  the  successful  and  extensive  introduc- 
tion of  the  Westinghouse  air  brake. 

All  of  this  goes  to  show  that  there  is  very  little  new  under 
the  sun  in  the  sense  of  complete  and  unanticipated  inven- 
tions, as  every  student  of  the  history  of  patents  knows.  A 
famous  inventor  says  that  "our  ancestors  were  very  dis- 
honest. They  stole  all  our  best  inventions."  In  1868  West- 
inghouse was  only  twenty-two  years  old.  His  experience 
in  taking  out  patents  was  limited,  and  his  knowledge  of  the 
prior  art  of  power  braking  was  confined  to  the  steam  brake 
of  Goodale  and  the  mechanical  brakes  of  Ambler  and  Lough- 
ridge.  Therefore,  he  was  an  independent  but  not  original 
discoverer  of  the  fundamental  idea  of  applying  brakes  to 
the  wheels  of  all  the  vehicles  in  a  train  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  air,  compressed  by  an  independent,  steam- 
driven  air  pump,  stored  in  a  tank  or  reservoir  and  conveyed 
at  will  by  pipes  to  brake  cylinders  under  the  cars.  From 
1852  onward,  various  patentees  in  England  and  the  United 
States  filed  applications  disclosing  this  general  purpose, 
and  partly  or  wholly  providing  for  and  describing  in  more 
or  less  detail  the  principal  devices  necessary  to  accomplish 
it.  None  of  these  patents,  however,  nor  all  of  them  to- 
gether, covered  a  complete  and  workable  combination,  as 
did  Westinghouse's  original  patent  which,  in  addition  to 
all  the  essential  devices  enumerated  and  described  in  the 
previous  patents,  provided  at  least  two  additional  novel 
devices  equally  important  in  actual  operation.  The  first 
of  these  was  the  three-way  cock  which  served  as  the  first 
form  of  engineer's  brake  valve,  and  the  other  was  the  hose 


28  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

coupling  for  connecting  the  air  pipes  between  the  cars. 
These  couplings  contained  automatic  valves  so  arranged 
that  when  the  couplings  were  parted  the  valves  closed  and 
retained  any  existing  ah-  pressure  in  the  brake  pipes  and 
the  cylinders.  In  case  of  a  break  in  two,  this  feature  per- 
mitted the  continued  use  of  the  brakes  on  the  portion  of 
the  train  attached  to  the  locomotive  and  was  most  impor- 
tant, since  otherwise  ah1  would  have  passed  through  and 
out  of  the  train  pipe  and  the  operation  of  the  brakes  would 
have  been  entirely  destroyed. 

These  two  mechanical  elements,  original  with  Westing- 
house,  in  combination  with  the  other  devices,  some  of  which 
were  already  known,  formed  the  basis  of  his  first  air-brake 
invention;  but  the  immediate  and  later  success  of  the  West- 
inghouse  brake  was  not  due  so  much  to  the  ingenuity  of 
the  inventor  in  providing  the  missing  links  and  working 
out  this  particular  combination  as  to  other  factors.  It  was 
not  the  ideas  described  in  his  patent  and  embodied  in  the 
apparatus  built  and  shown  in  a  machine  shop  in  Pittsburgh 
in  1868  that  were  principally  responsible  for  the  amazing 
train  of  events  which  followed  so  fast.  It  was  the  man  be- 
hind the  idea,  with  his  vision,  his  will,  his  courage,  and  his 
commercial  instinct.  As  mere  invention,  Westinghouse's 
subsequent  contributions  to  the  air-brake  art  were  far  more 
novel  and  brilliant  than  his  original  conception,  and  like- 
wise of  much  greater  importance,  both  mechanically  and 
commercially.  The  great  underlying  thing  to  understand 
and  to  remember  is  that  he  created  a  new  art  and  a  beau- 
tiful art.  The  magnitude  of  that  art,  its  complexity,  and 
the  time,  the  skill,  and  the  patience  that  went  to  its  build- 
ing, we  shall  try  to  show. 


THE  FIRST  STEP  INj  ITS  USE  29 

THE  FIRST  AIR-BRAKED  TRAINS 

The  first  step  toward  the  successful  use  of  compressed 
air  in  braking  railway  trains  had  to  be  taken  in  the  long 
trail  that  leads  from  the  crude  and  simple  straight-air  brake 
of  1868  to  the  complicated  and  powerful  automatic  ap- 
paratus now  in  use,  and  that  first  step  was  taken  by  George 
Westinghouse  on  a  momentous  day  in  September  1868, 
when  the  Steubenville  Accommodation  on  the  Panhandle 
Railroad,  equipped  with  brake  apparatus  designed  by  him 
and  built,  not  only  under  his  supervision,  but  partly  with 
his  own  hands,  began  its  initial  trip  from  the  Union  Station 
in  Pittsburgh. 

The  essential  parts  of  the  air  brake  as  first  assembled 
were: 

An  air  pump  driven  by  a  steam  engine  receiving  its  sup- 
ply from  the  boiler  of  the  locomotive; 

A  main  reservoir  on  the  locomotive  into  which  air  was 
compressed  to  about  sixty  or  seventy  pounds  per  square 
inch; 

A  pipe  leading  from  the  reservoir  to  a  valve  mechanism 
convenient  to  the  engineer; 

Brake  cylinders  for  the  tender  and  each  car; 

A  line  of  pipe  from  the  engineer's  brake  valve  passing 
under  the  tender  and  all  of  the  cars,  with  a  connection  to 
each  brake  cylinder.  Flexible  hose  connections  between 
the  cars  provided  with  couplings  having  valves  which  were 
automatically  opened  when  the  two  parts  of  the  couplings 
were  joined  and  automatically  closed  when  the  couplings 
were  separated. 

The  piston  of  each  cylinder  was  attached  to  the  ordi- 
nary hand-brake  gear,  and  when  the  piston  was  thrust  out- 
ward by  the  admission  of  compressed  air,  the  brakes  were 


30  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

applied.  When  the  engineer  had  occasion  to  stop  his  train, 
he  admitted  the  air  from  the  reservoir  on  the  locomotive 
into  the  brake  cylinders  through  the  train  pipe.  The  pis- 
tons of  all  cylinders  were,  it  was  then  supposed,  simultane- 
ously moved  to  set  all  of  the  brakes  with  a  force  depending 
upon  the  amount  of  air  admitted  through  the  valve  under 
the  control  of  the  engineer.  To  release  the  brakes  the  handle 
of  the  brake  valve  was  moved  so  as  to  cut  off  communica- 
tion with  the  reservoir,  and  then  to  open  a  passage  from  the 
brake  pipe  to  the  atmosphere,  permitting  the  air  which 
had  been  admitted  to  the  pipes  and  cylinders  to  escape. 
This  primitive  but  useful  and  successful  brake  came  to  be 
known  as  the  straight-air  brake,  as  distinguished  from  the 
automatic  brake  which  displaced  it  entirely  in  a  few  years — 
we  shall  see  why.  The  vital  difference  is  that  in  the  straight- 
air  brake  increase  of  pressure  in  the  train  pipe  applies  the 
brakes.  In  the  automatic  brake  decrease  of  pressure  ap- 
plies the  brakes.  That  is  why  it  is  automatic.  If  the  train 
is  torn  in  two  or  if  a  hose  connection  between  two  cars  bursts 
the  brakes  go  on;  with  the  straight-air  brake  they  would 
go  out  of  action. 

The  success  of  the  apparatus  on  the  first  train  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  equipment  of  a  train  of  six  cars  on  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad,  and  in  September  1869,  this  train  was 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  Association  of  Master  Me- 
chanics, representing  many  railways,  then  in  session  at 
Pittsburgh.  The  train  was  run  to  Altoona  and  the  air 
brakes  alone  were  used  to  control  the  speed  of  the  train 
on  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Alleghanies,  and  special  stops 
were  made  at  the  steepest  places  on  the  line  in  such  un- 
precedentedly  short  distances  as  to  establish  in  the  minds  of 
all  present  the  fact  that  trains  could  be  efficiently  and  suc- 
cessfully controlled  by  brakes  operated  by  compressed  air. 


THE  VALUE  OF  UNIFORMITY  31 

The  next  event  of  importance  was  to  put  brakes  (in  No- 
vember 1869)  on  a  train  of  ten  cars  on  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad,  which  was  taken  to  Philadelphia  to  demonstrate 
to  the  directors  of  that  railroad  the  success  of  the  apparatus, 
and  this  was  followed  by  similar  demonstrations  at  Chicago 
and  Indianapolis.  The  outcome  of  these  demonstrations 
was  immediate  orders  for  equipment  from  the  Michigan 
Central  and  the  Chicago  &  North  Western  Railways,  and 
shortly  thereafter  for  the  Union  Pacific,  in  the  West,  and 
for  the  Old  Colony  and  Boston  &  Providence  in  the  East. 

With  this  auspicious  start,  the  progress  of  the  new  de- 
vice was  so  rapid  that  by  April  1,  1874  (that  is,  five  years 
and  a  half  after  the  first  trial  train  was  run),  2281  locomo- 
tives and  7254  cars  had  been  equipped  with  the  straight- 
air  brake,  including  148  locomotive  and  724  car  equipments 
shipped  to  foreign  countries.  These  equipments  were  manu- 
factured and  supplied  by  the  Westinghouse  Air  Brake  Com- 
pany, a  corporation  of  Pennsylvania,  which  was  chartered 
September  28,  1869,  and  began  operations  in  leased  prem- 
ises at  the  corner  of  Liberty  Avenue  and  25th  Street,  Pitts- 
burgh, early  in  1870. 

From  the  very  commencement  of  the  brake  business, 
Westinghouse  insisted  on  the  great  importance  of  uniformity 
of  design  and  manufacture.  Standards  were  adopted  and 
adhered  to,  in  all  parts  of  the  brake  apparatus  requiring 
uniformity  to  insure  interchange  of  the  rolling  stock  so 
fitted  upon  various  roads.  It  would  be  difficult  to  over- 
state the  value  of  this  policy  to  the  railroads  of  the  United 
States  in  terms  of  safety,  time,  or  money.  If  the  brake 
equipment  installed  upon  71,500  locomotives,  63,000  pas- 
senger-service cars,  and  2,800,000  freight  cars  in  the  United 
States  now  so  equipped,  involved  a  bare  half-dozen  stand- 
ards instead  of  a  single  one,  the  increased  cost  and  delay 


32  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

in  handling  the  transportation  of  the  country  would  be 
beyond  estimate.  In  fact,  this  instinct  for  standardizing 
was  a  fundamental  thing  in  the  nature  of  Westinghouse. 
It  appears  all  through  the  years,  in  his  practice  and  in  his 
teaching. 

THE  COMING  OF  THE  AUTOMATIC  BRAKE 

The  transition  from  the  straight-air  brake  to  the  auto- 
matic brake  will  be  described  presently.  This  involved  a 
change  in  the  principle  of  operation,  and  demanded  im- 
portant additions  to  the  devices.  The  change  was  radical 
and  it  was  vital.  But  all  the  later  forms  of  Westinghouse 
brake  apparatus,  ranging  from  the  plain  automatic  brake 
of  1874  through  various  types  of  quick-action  automatic 
brakes  to  the  standard  form  of  today,  show  the  desirability, 
if  not  the  necessity,  of  having  each  succeeding  type  of  brake 
interchange  and  operate  harmoniously  with  its  predeces- 
sors, and  this  point  has  never  been  lost  sight  of.  This  very 
practical  consideration  as  a  limiting  condition  has  been 
one  of  the  most  difficult  factors  in  the  development  of  brake 
apparatus  of  sufficient  flexibility  and  power  to  meet  the 
ever-changing  demand  incident  to  the  introduction  of 
heavier  tonnage  cars,  more  powerful  locomotives,  higher 
speeds,  and  increased  length  of  trains. 

Before  passing  to  the  development  of  the  automatic 
brake,  it  is  interesting  to  note  the  extent  to  which  the 
straight-air  brake  came  to  be  used  in  the  brief  time  which 
covered  the  active  life  of  that  type  of  apparatus  and  to 
record  its  creditable  performance. 

In  1876  there  were  in  use  in  the  United  States  15,569 
locomotives  and  14,055  passenger  cars,  of  which  2645  loco- 
motives and  8508  passenger  cars,  or  37.7  per  cent  of  the 
whole,  were  equipped  with  Westinghouse  straight-air  brakes. 


RESULTS  OF  A  VISIT  TO  ENGLAND  33 

At  this  time  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  operated  trains  con- 
sisting of  a  locomotive,  one  express  car,  one  baggage  car, 
three  coaches  and  six  Pullmans.  The  average  weight  of  a 
passenger  locomotive  and  tender  with  fuel  and  water  was 
fifty  tons;  baggage  and  express  cars,  ten  tons;  passenger 
coaches,  sixteen  tons,  and  Pullman  coaches,  twenty-seven 
tons.  On  that  basis,  the  Pennsylvania  trains  above  de- 
scribed would  weigh  580,000  pounds.  With  the  straight- 
air  brake  the  average  length  of  stop  from  thirty  miles 
an  hour  was  500  feet.  In  the  good  old  days  of  the  hand 
brake,  which  trainmen  afterward  affectionately  called  the 
"Armstrong  brake,"  stops  from  thirty  miles  an  hour  were 
seldom  made  under  1600  feet.  The  straight-air  brake  was 
a  great  step  forward,  but  to  Westinghouse  its  defects  and 
limitations  were  soon  manifest.  At  what  early  date  after 
its  introduction  he  began  the  study  of  how  to  remedy  its 
defects,  is  not  definitely  known. 

In  July  1871,  he  made  his  first  trip  to  Europe  for  the 
purpose  of  introducing  his  invention,  and  remained  abroad 
until  August  of  the  next  year.  Despite  his  ability  to  show 
how  fast  American  railroads  were  equipping  their  trains 
with  his  straight-air  brake,  he  found  it  exceedingly  difficult 
to  make  any  impression  on  the  railway  managers  of  Great 
Britain.  In  his  efforts  to  get  favorable  attention,  he  sought 
the  assistance  of  the  editors  of  Engineering,  then  and  now 
a  famous  journal.  After  several  interviews,  Mr.  Dredge, 
one  of  the  editors,  handed  Westinghouse  a  draft  of  an  edi- 
torial that  he  proposed  to  publish  on  the  general  subject 
of  air  brakes.  This  editorial  was  an  argument  for  better 
brakes  on  British  railways,  and  in  it  the  editor  named  the 
qualities  that  he  considered  essential  to  the  satisfactory 
operation  of  continuous  brakes.  Several  of  his  specifications 
were  fully  met  by  the  Westinghouse  straight-air  brake,  but 


34  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

at  least  two  of  them  were  not:  "If  a  part  of  the  train 
breaks  loose  from  the  rest,  the  brakes  must  come  automati- 
cally into  play;  the  failure  of  the  brake  apparatus  on  one 
or  more  carriages  must  not  interfere  with  the  action  of  the 
brakes  on  the  rest  of  the  train."  The  precise  statement  of 
these  two  requirements  may  have  suggested  new  ideas  to 
Westinghouse  or  may  have  crystallized  ideas  already  in 
his  mind.  At  any  rate  it  was  not  very  long  thereafter  that 
evidence  of  his  serious  study  along  these  lines  appeared  in 
his  patents.  The  first  public  disclosure  of  the  result  of 
this  study  is  found  in  United  States  patents  124,404  and 
124,405,  both  filed  December  6,  1871,  and  issued  March  5, 
1872.  The  specification  of  124,404  reads  in  part  as  follows: 

In  the  air-brake  apparatus  heretofore  in  use  a  single 
line  of  pipe  conveys  the  compressed  air  from  the  main  reser- 
voir on  the  locomotive  to  each  brake  cylinder.  If  this  pipe 
becomes  accidentally  broken  at  any  point  it  is,  of  course, 
useless  for  braking  purposes  from  that  point  to  the  rear 
end  of  the  train.  For  this  and  other  reasons  I  have  devised 
an  apparatus  consisting  in  part  of  a  double  line  of  brake 
pipes,  which  may  be  cooperative  or  independently  opera- 
tive in  braking,  at  the  pleasure  of  engineer.  .  .  . 

The  improvement  herein  described  consists  in  the  fea- 
tures of  construction  and  combination  by  which,  first,  an 
air  reservoir,  auxiliary  to  or  independent  of  the  main  reser- 
voir, is  combined  on  each  car  with  the  brake  cylinder;  sec- 
ond, by  means  of  a  cock  or  cocks,  such  additional  reservoir, 
when  used  as  an  auxiliary  reservoir,  is  charged  with  com- 
pressed air  from  one  brake  pipe,  and  the  brake  cylinder 
from  the  other,  such  pipes  in  such  use  being  interchange- 
able or  not,  at  pleasure;  third,  and  by  means  of  a  single 
cock,  either  brake  pipe  may  be  used  for  charging  the  reser- 
voir and  the  other  for  operating  the  brakes;  fourth,  when 
a  car  becbmes  disconnected  from  the  train  by  accident  or 
otherwise,  a  port  or  ports  will  thereby  be  opened  in  a  com- 


THE  AUTOMATIC  BRAKE  IS  BORN       35 

municating  pipe  or  pipes,  by  which  the  air  from  such  aux- 
iliary reservoir  will  be  admitted  freely  to  the  brake  cylinder, 
so  as  automatically  to  apply  the  brakes;  and,  fifth,  the  con- 
ductor and  engineer  may  communicate  signals  or  orders  to 
each  other  by  the  use  of  the  brake  pipes  and  the  compressed 
air. 

Later  the  specification,  referring  to  the  "receiver  or  reser- 
voir," as  shown  on  the  drawings,  says: 

It  may  be  used  as  a  reservoir  auxiliary  to  the  main  reser- 
voir, or  as  an  independent  reservoir,  one  on  each  car,  for 
storing  up  the  air  necessary  to  apply  the  brakes.  In  this 
latter  use  I  combine  with  it  any  known  device  for  com- 
pressing air,  such  as  an  air  pump,  fan  blower,  steam  in- 
jector, &c.;  and  if  an  air  pump  it  may  be  worked  by  an 
eccentric  on  one  of  the  car  axles  or  in  other  known  way. 

Four  things  mentioned  for  the  first  time  in  this  patent 
are  significant:  the  double  line  of  pipe,  the  installation  of 
separate  or  auxiliary  reservoirs  on  each  car,  the  employ- 
ment of  the  brake  system  as  a  means  of  communication 
by  signals,  and  the  installation  of  independent  compressing 
apparatus  on  each  vehicle,  including  the  suggestion  of  axle- 
driven  compressors.  Priority  of  invention  is  claimed  for 
the  first  three. 

The  method  of  operation  described  in  this  patent  covered 
the  usual  and  familiar  straight-air  system,  using  either  one  of 
the  brake  pipes  for  that  purpose.  The  brake  pipe  not  so 
employed  provided  a  connection  between  the  main  reservoir 
and  the  auxiliary  reservoirs  and,  together  with  the  auxilia- 
ries remained  at  all  times  charged  with  a  predetermined 
pressure.  By  means  of  cross  pipes  at  the  end  of  each  car, 
communication  was  established  between  the  "operating 
pipe"  and  the  storage  or  "reservoir  pipe"  through  three- 


36  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

way  valves  that  were  operated  automatically  to  charge 
the  brake  cylinder  with  auxiliary  reservoir  air  in  case  of  a 
break  in  two  or  in  the  event  of  a  car  leaving  the  rails.  The 
various  devices  provided  to  accomplish  this  purpose  are 
crude  and  their  availability  in  actual  service  somewhat 
questionable,  but  as  the  first  step  in  the  development  of  an 
automatic  brake,  the  idea  disclosed  by  this  patent  is  in- 
teresting. 

The  signals  referred  to  were  operated  by  admitting  air 
from  the  charged  reservoir  pipe  into  the  operating  pipe. 
Air  gages  were  installed  in  each  car  and  in  the  engineer's 
cab.  The  face  of  each  gage  showed  eight  points  distinctly 
marked  at  equal  distances  around  the  complete  circle,  and 
each  point,  when  indicated  by  the  index  finger  of  the  gage, 
conveyed  a  distinct  order  or  message,  as  "flag  station," 
"stop  for  orders,"  "stop,"  and  so  forth.  The  position  of 
the  index  finger  was  determined  by  the  amount  of  pressure 
admitted  into  the  operating  pipe  through  the  controlling 
valve  on  each  car  as  manipulated  by  the  operator.  The 
attention  of  the  engineer  was  directed  to  the  gage  by  an 
alarm  whistle  likewise  installed  in  the  cab.  This  idea  de- 
veloped into  the  well-known  and  simple  air  signal,  now  and 
for  years  past  in  universal  use,  which  will  be  discussed  later. 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  automatic  action  of  the  brake 
described  in  patent  124,404  was  an  independent  emergency 
feature,  and  not  in  any  way  under  the  control  of  the  en- 
gineer; in  other  words,  it  was  not  possible  for  the  engineer 
to  use  the  air  stored  in  the  auxiliary  reservoirs  under  the 
cars  for  the  application  or  release  of  the  brakes.  That  this 
feature  could  be  made  "cooperative,"  or  "independently 
operated,"  that  is  to  say,  both  independent  of  and  depen- 
dent upon  the  will  of  the  engineer,  is  indicated  hi  the  above 
quotation  from  the  specification  of  patent  124,404.  The 


THE  AUTOMATIC  BRAKE  ADVANCES      37 

devices  necessary  to  render  it  "cooperative"  are  covered 
by  patent  124,405  issued  concurrently.  The  specification 
of  this  patent  so  well  describes  the  functions  of  an  auto- 
matic brake  controlled  by  the  engineer  through  the  fluc- 
tuation of  air  pressure  in  the  brake  pipes  that  it  is  here 
reproduced  in  part: 

I  now  propose  further  to  improve  this  system  of  railway 
brakes  by  bringing  this  continuous  reservoir  pipe  into  com- 
munication with  the  brake  cylinders  at  pleasure,  through  the 
agency  of  compressed  air  admitted  from  the  main  reservoir  into 
the  other  brake  pipe;  by  such  construction  and  arrangement 
of  intermediate  devices  that,  by  simply  discharging  compressed 
air  from  this  continuous  reservoir  pipe,  a  communication  will 
be  opened  from  the  auxiliary  reservoir  to  the  brake  cylinder } 
whereby  the  brakes  will  be  applied;  by  a  system  of  valves  and 
ports  which  shall  effectuate  all  these  results  by  their  automatic 
action,  except  as  their  action  is  governed  by  the  engineer  at 
the  main  reservoir. 

By  the  italics,  attention  is  directed  to  the  elements  that 
differentiate  this  patent  from  the  previous  one  and  mark 
it  as  the  pioneer  patent  in  automatic  braking  so  far  as  the 
fundamental  idea  is  concerned.  The  "intermediate  de- 
vices" and  the  "system  of  valves  and  ports,"  used  to  ac- 
complish the  functions  described,  underwent  many  changes, 
and  by  the  exercise  of  great  ingenuity  were  eventually  re- 
duced to  the  simple  and  beautiful  plain  triple  valve  in  its 
final  form,  as  covered  by  patent  220,556,  but  so  far  as 
providing  means  whereby  the  discharge  of  air  from  the 
"reservoir  pipe"  by  the  engineer  at  will,  or  by  the  rupture 
of  brake  pipe,  would  apply  the  brakes  in  emergency,  the 
triple  valve  of  1879  is  the  legitimate,  although  more  richly 
endowed,  successor  of  the  strange  congeries  of  valves  em- 
bodied in  the  structure  covered  by  patent  124,405.  This 


38  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

structure  was  made  and  successfully  tested  on  the  rack, 
but  was  never  put  into  practice  because  it  was  soon  super- 
seded by  a  succession  of  much  simplified  devices  to  be  de- 
scribed later.  For  this  reason  and  because  of  its  complicated 
construction,  no  detailed  description  of  its  operation  is  at- 
tempted, but  if  the  student  of  the  air-brake  art  will  examine 
the  specification  of  this  notable  patent,  he  will  get  a  new 
conception  of  the  mechanical  ability  of  the  man  who  worked 
out  this  combination,  and  a  still  higher  appreciation  of  the 
later  developments  by  which  even  more  remarkable  results 
were  obtained. 

Much  complexity  was  due  to  the  fact  that  during  the 
transition  period  Westinghouse  used  two  brake  pipes,  the 
"operating  pipe"  and  the  "reservoir  pipe."  If  these  pipes 
had  been  used  invariably  for  the  purpose  designated  by 
their  respective  names,  the  valves,  ports,  and  passages  re- 
quired would  have  been  greatly  reduced  in  number;  but 
in  the  earliest  stages  of  this  development,  Westinghouse 
evidently  considered  it  essential  that  either  pipe  could  be 
used  as  an  "operating  pipe,"  and  to  accomplish  this  pur- 
pose the  number  of  independent  valve  devices  was  doubled, 
if  not  trebled. 

Before  dismissing  the  apparatus  covered  by  patent  124,- 
405,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  term  "triple  valve" 
is  not  found  in  its  specification  or  in  that  of  the  succeeding 
patent,  but  in  patent  138,827,  filed  February  1,  1873,  in 
which  it  does  appear  for  the  first  time,  a  reference  is  made 
to  these  earlier  devices  as  such.  The  term  "triple  valve" 
has  become  fundamental  in  air-brake  language.  It  was 
coined  to  express  the  threefold  function  of  the  device,  viz., 
to  apply  the  brakes,  to  release  them,  and  to  charge  the 
auxiliary  reservoirs.  Since  the  devices  described  in  the 
previous  patents  were  not  designed  automatically  to  release 


THE  TRIPLE  VALVE  EMERGES  39 

the  brakes  when  automatically  applied,  the  structures  they 
cover  can  scarcely  be  called  "triple  valves"  in  the  strict 
use  of  that  term. 

In  patent  138,827,  issued  May  13,  1873,  the  triple  valve 
first  assumed  the  general  form  maintained  for  many 
years.  It  was  a  true  triple  valve  in  that  it  automatically 
performed  the  three  functions  and  was  thus  in  reality  the 
first  of  the  long  series  of  triple  valves.  In  this  valve  and 
its  immediate  successors  the  pressures  in  brake  pipe  and 
auxiliary  reservoir  were  separated  by  a  rubber  diaphragm 
or  "flexible  annulus,"  as  it  is  termed  in  the  patent  specifi- 
cation, whereby  all  or  nearly  all  the  friction  encountered 
in  previous  valve  devices  was  avoided  and  an  absolutely 
air-tight  joint  secured. 

Perhaps  it  should  be  explained  here  that  there  are  two 
kinds  of  stops — the  service  stop,  as  at  stations,  and  the 
emergency  stop.  In  the  service  stop  the  brakes  are  slowly 
applied  and  not  with  the  full  power.  In  the  emergency 
stop  the  full  power  is  brought  into  effect  as  quickly  as  that 
can  be  done  without  sliding  the  wheels.  Installed  as  supple- 
mental to  the  straight-air  brake  as  before,  but  now  on  a 
separate  line  of  pipe  with  no  connection  between  the  two 
lines,  the  automatic  brake  was  still  essentially  an  emergency 
brake,  since  with  the  first  diaphragm  valve  it  was  imprac- 
ticable to  apply  the  automatic  brake  except  with  maxi- 
mum pressure.  However,  when  thus  applied  on  the  com- 
paratively short  passenger  trains  of  that  day,  it  was  de- 
cidedly quicker  than  the  straight-air  brake  and  resulted 
in  shorter  stops. 

After  the  usual  service  tests  of  this  valve  and  before  it 
was  released  for  manufacture,  the  third  and  final  form  of 
"diaphragm  triple  valve"  was  brought  out,  embodying 
several  improvements  in  construction  described  in  patent 


40  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOTJSE 

149,901,  issued  April  21,  1874.  This  valve  was  used  quite 
extensively  in  the  earliest  commercial  installations  of  auto- 
matic brakes.  It  formed  part  of  the  automatic  equip- 
ment installed  on  the  train  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the 
committee  on  Science  and  the  Arts  of  the  Franklin  In- 
stitute by  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  for  test  purposes, 
which  tests  resulted  hi  the  award  to  Westinghouse  of  the 
Scott  medal.  The  train  consisted  of  an  engine,  tender,  and 
seven  passenger  cars.  The  weight  is  not  given,  but  it 
presumably  approximated  325,000  pounds.  The  trial  runs 
for  which  this  train  was  furnished  were  made  on  the  Penn- 
sylvania Railroad  fifteen  miles  from  Philadelphia  on  May 
20,  1873.  A  number  of  tests  were  made  and  while  scien- 
tific accuracy  was  not  possible,  due  to  the  lack  of  timing 
and  other  special  apparatus  used  in  later  tests,  the  follow- 
ing figures  for  three  of  the  runs  are  fairly  indicative  of  the 
actual  results  obtained.  A  critical  student  of  the  art  will 
discover  shorter  and  more  consistent  stops  in  other  records 
of  about  the  same  time.  In  answer  to  signal,  the  train 
stopped  in  547  feet  from  30  miles  an  hour  on  an  up-grade 
of  29.6  feet  to  the  mile.  On  application  of  brakes  from  the 
train,  the  stop  was  in  15  seconds  in  553  feet,  from  a  speed 
of  32  or  33  miles  an  hour  on  a  down-grade  of  31.7  feet  per 
mile.  With  engine  detached,  the  train  stopped  in  10^  sec- 
onds in  323  feet,  from  40  miles  an  hour  on  a  down-grade 
of  28.2  feet  per  mile.  The  report  concluded  as  follows: 

The  committee  say  that  these  experiments  have  demon- 
strated to  them  the  extraordinary  efficiency  of  this  apparatus, 
and  they  especially  call  attention  to  the  value  and  impor- 
tance of  the  arrangement  which  secures  the  instant  auto- 
matic application  of  the  brakes  on  the  engine  and  on  each 
car  of  the  train  independently  of  the  train  hand,  in  certain 
contingencies  which  are  of  common  occurrence  and  are  the 
cause  of  frequently  disastrous  accidents. 


AUTOMATIC  FUNDAMENTALS  41 

The  committee  believe  that  by  contriving  and  intro- 
ducing this  apparatus,  Mr.  Westinghouse  has  become  a 
great  public  benefactor  and  deserves  the  gratitude  of  the 
travelling  public  at  least.  They  believe  that  his  inventions 
are  worthy  of  and  should  receive  the  award  of  the  Scott 
Legacy  Medal. 

Accordingly,  the  committee  proposed  the  adoption  of 
the  following  resolution : 

Resolved,  that  this  Committee  (of  Science  and  Arts) 
recommend  to  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the  Institute  that 
they  make  the  award  of  the  John  Scott's  Legacy  Premium 
and  Medal  to  George  Westinghouse,  Jr.,  of  Pittsburgh,  for 
his  improvements  in  air  brakes  for  railway  trains. 

FUNDAMENTALS  OF  THE  AUTOMATIC  BRAKE 

At  the  time  of  this  trial  the  automatic  brake  had  become 
finally  differentiated  from  the  straight-air  brake.  It  may 
be  well,  therefore,  to  give  here  a  short  description  of  its 
principal  features  before  taking  up  the  further  develop- 
ment of  the  triple  valve  and  other  automatic-brake  devices. 
The  plain  automatic  brake  and  also  the  straight-air  brake, 
included  an  air  compressor  and  main  reservoir  on  the  loco- 
motive, a  valve  in  the  cab,  known  as  the  engineer's  brake 
valve,  brake  cylinders  under  the  tender  and  each  car,  a 
line  of  pipe  and  flexible  hose  connections,  to  form  a  con- 
tinuous air  conduit  from  the  main  reservoir  to  the  rear  of 
the  train.  These  features  were  common  to  the  automatic 
and  the  straight-air  brakes. 

In  the  straight-air  brake,  compressed  air  was  carried  from 
the  main  reservoir  on  the  engine  through  the  engineer's 
brake  valve  and  through  the  brake  pipe  to  the  brake 
cylinders,  thus  applying  the  brakes.  The  brakes  were 
released  by  so  manipulating  the  engineer's  valve  as,  through 


42  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

it,  to  discharge  to  the  atmosphere  the  compressed  air  from 
the  brake  pipe  and  likewise  from  all  the  brake  cylinders 
with  which  it  was  directly  connected.  Normally,  there- 
fore, in  the  straight-air  brake  system,  the  air  in  the  brake 
pipe  was  at  atmospheric  pressure  when  the  train  was  run- 
ning and  charged  with  air  at  any  desired  pressure  less  than 
the  main  reservoir  pressure  when  the  brakes  were  being 
applied. 

In  the  automatic  brake  system,  this  normal  operation 
was  completely  reversed.  When  running,  the  brake  pipe 
was  fully  charged  with  air  at  a  predetermined  pressure 
and  the  brakes  were  applied  through  a  reduction  of  brake- 
pipe  pressure  by  the  manipulation  of  the  engineer's  valve, 
so  opening  a  special  valve  on  each  car,  or  by  the  accidental 
separation  of  the  car,  or  by  any  rupture  in  the  brake  pipe 
or  the  hose  connections.  This  automatic  action  was  se- 
cured by  two  important  features  installed  on  each  car, 
in  addition  to  those  used  in  common  with  the  straight-air 
brake,  viz.,  an  auxiliary  or  supplemental  reservoir  and  the 
triple  valve  interposed  between  the  main  brake  pipe,  aux- 
iliary reservoir,  and  brake  cylinder.  Through  the  triple 
valve,  when  air  under  pressure  was  admitted  to  the  brake 
pipe,  the  auxiliary  reservoir  was  charged  to  brake-pipe 
pressure.  At  the  same  time,  a  port  was  opened  from  the 
brake  cylinder  to  the  atmosphere.  This  was  the  normal 
or  running  position  with  the  brakes  fully  released.  A  re- 
duction of  brake-pipe  pressure  caused  the  piston  of  the 
triple  valve  to  shift  its  position,  closing  the  port  between 
the  brake  cylinder  and  the  atmosphere  and  also  the  port 
between  the  brake  pipe  and  the  auxiliary  reservoir.  At  the 
same  time,  and  by  the  same  movement,  communication 
was  established  between  the  auxiliary  reservoir  and  the 
brake  cylinder,  and  thus  the  brakes  were  automatically 


THE  TRIPLE  VALVE  DEVELOPS  43 

applied."  The  restoration  of  brake-pipe  pressure  reversed 
this  operation,  released  the  brakes,  and  recharged  the 
auxiliary  reservoir.  It  will  be  observed  that  now  only  one 
line  of  brake  pipe  was  used.  The  simple,  automatic  and 
effective  performance  of  all  these  functions  was  through 
that  marvel  of  ingenuity,  the  triple  valve. 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE   TRIPLE   VALVE 

In  its  perfected  state,  the  flexible  diaphragm  triple  valve 
was  a  sensitive  and  highly  efficient  device,  but  the  use  of 
poppet  valves  with  their  liability  to  leakage,  the  normally 
closed  exhaust  port,  and  the  perishable  nature  of  the  rub- 
ber diaphragm,  soon  led  to  the  invention  of  the  "piston- 
and-slide-valve"  type  of  triple  valve,  the  experimental  form 
of  which  was  covered  by  patent  168,359,  dated  October 
5,  1875.  This  form  was  quickly  followed  by  the  first  com- 
mercial valve  of  this  type  described  in  patent  172,064, 
dated  January  11,  1876,  which  embodied  in  its  structure  a 
most  important  improvement,  the  feature  of  lost  motion 
in  the  slide  valve.  The  utilization  of  this  feature  effected 
the  opening  and  closing  of  the  feed  port  in  response  to 
slight  variations  of  pressure,  thus  greatly  increasing  the 
sensitiveness  of  the  triple  by  obviating  the  necessity  of 
raising  the  pressure  sufficiently  to  overcome  friction  of  the 
slide  valve.  This  triple  was  standard  from  1876  to  1879. 
The  next  and  last  step  in  the  development  of  the  plain 
triple  valve  was  the  invention  of  the  graduating  valve,  which 
made  possible  a  still  finer  graduation  of  the  brakes,  both 
in  application  and  release.  The  triple  valve  in  which  this 
refinement  was  embodied  is  covered  by  patent  220,556, 
dated  October  14,  1879.  With  slight  modifications,  this  is 
the  form  of  plain  triple  that  remained  standard  for  pas- 
senger-car equipment  until  the  invention  of  the  quick-action 


44  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

triple  valve  in  1887,  and  for  locomotives  and  tenders  until 
the  introduction  of  the  ET  equipment  in  1908. 

We  have  seen  that  Westinghouse  filed  in  the  patent  of- 
fice his  first  caveat  for  the  air  brake  in  July  1868,  that  is, 
three  months  before  he  was  twenty-two,  and  this  patent 
was  issued  the  next  April.  We  have  traced  for  ten  years 
the  course  of  the  main  stream  of  invention  which  led  to 
the  perfection  of  what  is  known  as  the  plain  triple  valve 
and  to  the  solid  establishment  of  the  automatic  system. 
Presently,  we  shall  take  up  the  greatest  invention  in  the 
air-brake  art,  the  quick-action,  automatic  triple,  and  shall 
relate  something  of  the  story  of  the  brake  as  it  is  today; 
but  first  we  will  glance  at  a  few  smaller  but  essential  de- 
tails which  go  to  make  up  a  system. 

SUNDRY  ACCESSORIES 

In  1870  Westinghouse  patented  a  steam-driven  air  pump, 
to  compress  air  for  braking,  which  has  persisted  in  type  to 
this  day — improved,  of  course,  in  detail.  It  is  doubted 
if  any  other  steam-driven  engine  has  been  made  which  has 
equalled  in  reliable  service  this  air  pump,  under  working 
conditions  so  severe. 

The  engineer's  operating  valve  of  1870  was  improved  in 
1879,  by  what  was  called  the  "excess-pressure"  valve  which 
was  designed  to  hold  in  the  main  reservoir  a  pressure  greater 
than  the  standard  brake-pipe  pressure.  This  was  impor- 
tant in  providing  for  emergencies  and  permitting  prompt 
release  of  the  brakes  and  quick  recharge  of  the  auxiliary 
reservoirs.  This  seems  to  have  met  the  requirements  of 
passenger  service,  but  when,  in  the  course  of  years,  the  air 
brake  came  to  be  applied  to  very  long  freight  trains  the 
need  of  further  improvement  was  disclosed  by  an  interest- 
ing experience.  An  experimental  train  of  fifty  stock  cars 


THE  ENGINEER'S  VALVE  45 

fitted  with  automatic  brakes  was  being  run  over  the  Pitts- 
burgh Division  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad.  In  those 
days,  very  few  engineers  had  handled  so  long  a  train  with 
the  air  brake.  The  Pennsylvania  Railroad  engineer  on  this 
train  was  a  good  air-brake  man  in  passenger  service,  but  he 
,had  no  experimental  knowledge,  or  theoretical  either,  of 
the  difference  between  braking  a  ten-car  and  a  fifty-car 
train.  When  he  came  to  let  his  train  down  the  eastern  slope 
of  the  Alleghanies,  he  got  into  trouble.  The  grade  is  long 
and  often  well  over  100  feet  to  the  mile,  and  there  are  sharp 
curves,  the  famous  "Horseshoe  Curve"  amongst  them. 

As  he  started  down  the  grade,  the  engineer  did  what  he 
would  have  done  with  the  trains  he  was  used  to;  he  put 
on  brakes  and  quickly  "lapped"  his  brake  valve — that  is, 
he  put  it  in  the  proper  position  for  ninning  with  brakes 
set.  The  result  was  to  set  the  brakes  on  the  leading  cars 
and  to  cause  a  surge  of  air  from  the  rear  cars  that  at  once 
released  them.  This  operation  was  repeated  three  or  four 
times;  air  pressure  was  getting  low,  and  it  looked  as  if  there 
must  be  a  call  for  hand  brakes  or  a  runaway  down  a  bad 
grade  and  through  the  curves.  Westinghouse  was  in  the 
cab,  and  it  was  suggested  that  he  should  take  the  brakes, 
a  suggestion  promptly  and  gratefully  accepted  by  the  en- 
gineer. By  delicate  handling,  Westinghouse  let  the  train 
smoothly  down  the  grade,  and  at  the  same  time  built  up 
the  air  pressure.  From  this  experience  quickly  came  the 
invention  of  the  engineer's  equalizing  valve — a  most  impor- 
tant improvement  in  air-brake  equipment. 

The  equalizing  valve  was  designed  so  to  control  the  dis- 
charge of  air  as  to  equalize  the  pressure  through  the  whole 
length  of  the  brake  pipe,  and  secure  uniform  application  of 
the  brakes.  This  prevents  the  things  that  happened  on  the 
Altoona  grade — setting  brakes  on  the  head  cars,  failure  to 


46  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

set  them  on  the  rear  cars,  and  the  release  of  the  forward 
brakes  by  a  surge  of  air  from  the  rear.  Probably  no  man 
could  have  reasoned  out  such  conduct  by  compressed  air; 
it  had  to  be  developed  and  discovered  by  experiment.  The 
history  of  the  art  is  full  of  such  situations.  This  valve  was 
the  joint  invention  of  George  Westinghouse  and  his  nephew, 
Frank  Moore.*  In  its  first  form  it  was  used  in  the  classical 
Burlington  brake  trial^  of  1886  and  1887.  It  was  improved 
in  1889,  and  then  no  important  change  was  made  in  it  for 
twenty  years. 

Everybody  knows  that  in  1833  Robert  Stephenson  in- 
vented a  steam  driver  brake  for  locomotives.  Forty  years 
later  George  Westinghouse  followed  him.  Westinghouse 
knew  the  desirability  of  power  brakes  on  the  locomotive 
as  the  most  important  single  factor  in  braking  trains,  be- 
cause of  the  greater  comparative  weight  of  the  locomotive. 
At  the  outset  the  use  of  driver  brakes  met  with  strong  op- 
position, which  persisted  for  many  years,  due  to  the  notion 
that  the  increased  brake  power  would  not  compensate  for 
the  increased  wear  of  driver  tires.  Now  the  supreme  im- 
portance of  braking  locomotives  to  the  limit  is  universally 
recognized.  If  man  is  a  reasoning  animal,  he  is  sometimes 
perverse.  The  writer  remembers  in  the  early  seventies, 
hearing  officers  of  the  old  army,  men  of  Civil  War  experi- 
ence, argue  stubbornly  against  breech-loading  rifles.  "The 
men  would  fire  away  their  ammunition  too  fast.  It  would 
be  impossible  to  keep  the  firing-line  supplied." 

The  first  driver  brake  invented  by  Westinghouse  was 
patented  in  1873.  Vertical  brake  cylinders  are  installed 
on  the  engine  frame  and  brake  shoes  are  applied  to  the  driv- 
ing wheels  by  means  of  a  steam-  or  air-actuated  piston 

*Mr.  Moore  contributed  substantially  to  the  brake  and  friction  draft-gear 
arts,  both  as  an  independent  inventor  and  as  co-inventor  with  Westinghouse. 


BRAKE  BEAMS  AND  HOSE  COUPLINGS  47 

operating  through  a  system  of  hangers  and  levers.  In  a 
later  form,  usually  called  a  "cam  brake/'  patented  in  1876, 
the  segmental  levers  or  cams  are  so  hung  that  "during  the 
beginning  of  their  stroke  the  touching  point  of  then-  opera- 
tive faces  shall  be  below  the  line  joining  the  centers  of 
curvature."  By  this  arrangement,  the  segmental  levers 
give  to  the  brake  shoes  a  quick  motion,  or  throw,  to  the 
surfaces  of  the  wheels,  thus  rapidly  taking  up  the  shoe 
clearance  before  the  application  of  full  brake  pressure.  Pis- 
ton travel  was  thus  substantially  reduced,  speed  of  applica- 
tion increased,  and  valuable  space  utilized  to  the  best  ad- 
vantage. That  cam  brakes  are  now  seldom  seen  is  largely 
due  to  change  in  number  and  arrangement  of  driving  wheels 
in  modem  locomotives. 

Westinghouse  was  an  early  inventor  in  the  brake-beam 
field,  and  his  contributions  to  this  element  of  the  art  of 
power  braking  were  very  valuable.  The  lack  of  strength 
and  rigidity  in  the  brake  rigging  in  general  use  in  America 
and  the  much  more  substantial  and  mechanical  methods 
employed  in  England  for  transmitting  brake  pressure  to 
the  wheels  led  Westinghouse  to  design  the  pioneer  metallic 
brake  beam  patented  in  1873.  This  was  soon  followed  by 
a  wooden  beam  supported  by  metallic  tension  rods,  giving 
greater  strength  and  rigidity  than  the  ordinary  wooden 
beam,  with  less  weight.  Both  of  these  came  into  general 
use  and  contributed  much  to  the  efficiency  of  the  brakes 
in  reducing  the  length  of  train  stops. 

The  earliest  form  of  hose  coupling  invented  by  Westing- 
house  was  one  of  the  elements  of  novelty  that  contributed 
largely  to  the  successful  issue  of  the  patent  suit  against 
the  Gardner  &  Ransom  Brake  Company  mentioned  earlier. 
The  special  feature  that  distinguished  this  from  any  ordi- 
nary coupling  was  the  valve  mechanism  that  closed  auto- 


48  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

matically  when  the  connection  was  separated  and  the  fact 
that  separation  under  any  unusual  strain  was  accomplished 
without  rupture.  These  fundamental  '  features  were  re- 
tained in  the  later  and  improved  forms  of  hose  couplings 
covered  by  half  a  dozen  patents  and  the  type  is  in  use  to- 
day. It  is  hard  to  exaggerate  the  importance  of  this  seem- 
ingly unimportant  device  among  the  various  units  that 
constitute  a  complete  car-brake  equipment.  The  fact  that 
it  has  persisted  for  more  than  forty-six  years  shows  how 
well  it  has  performed  its  function  and  played  its  part  in 
advancing  the  art  of  power  braking. 

Adjustment  of  slack  caused  by  the  wear  and  replacement 
of  brake-shoes,  has  always  been  and  will  always  be  one  of 
the  difficulties  in  power  braking.  The  desirability  of  tak- 
ing up  slack  automatically,  not  only  to  save  labor  but  to 
insure  greater  uniformity  in  brake  applications  was  seen 
early  by  Westinghouse,  and  hi  1872  he  secured  a  pioneer 
patent  on  a  device  designed  to  accomplish  this  purpose. 
The  mechanism  described  in  this  and  later  patents  included 
all  the  essential  elements  requisite  to  fulfil  the  function 
for  which  they  were  designed.  They  had,  however,  the 
drawback  of  taking  up  false  piston  travel  when  used  in 
connection  with  the  wooden  brake  beams  and  weak  levers 
and  brake  rods  common  to  the  equipment  when  the  in- 
vention was  made.  For  this  reason,  the  use  of  automatic 
slack  adjusters  was  discontinued  until  the  general  adop- 
tion of  strong  and  rigid  brake  gear  and  brake  beams. 

Another  interesting  invention  originally  included  in  com- 
plete sets  of  automatic  brake  equipment  for  passenger  cars, 
and  subsequently  abandoned,  was  a  trip  device  for  auto- 
matically setting  the  brakes  in  case  of  derailment.  To  ac- 
complish this  object,  a  valve  controlling  the  discharge  of 
air  from  the  brake  pipe  was  actuated  by  a  stem  extending 


TRAIN  SIGNALS  49 

downward  near  the  track,  carrying  a  cross  bar  in  such 
proximity  to  the  rail  that  if  the  truck  were  derailed  the 
cross  bar  would  strike  the  track,  lift  the  valve  from  its  seat, 
and,  by  discharging  air  from  the  brake  pipe,  apply  the 
brakes.  Experience  showed  that  brakes  were  sometimes  set 
by  loose  objects  on  the  right-of-way  and  an  emergency  stop 
was  made  under  inconvenient  or  even  dangerous  conditions. 
There  is  a  tradition  that  on  the  Long  Island  Railroad  a 
hen,  scuttling  across,  tripped  the  brakes  and  stopped  a 
train.  A  variant  makes  it  a  prairie-chicken  on  the  Wabash. 
Whatever  the  facts  may  have  been,  the  story  belongs  to 
the  important  class  of  truths  that  might  be  true.  At  any 
rate  the  use  of  the  trip  was  discontinued.  Numerous  varia- 
tions have  been  patented  but  the  objection  has  never  been 
overcome. 

The  fact  has  been  told  that  as  early  as  March  1872, 
Westinghouse  conceived  the  idea  of  employing  brake-pipe 
air  pressure  as  a  means  for  communicating  between  the 
vehicles  in  the  train  and  the  engineer  by  visible  and  audible 
signals.  In  working  out  this  idea,  audible  signals  alone 
were  found  to  meet  every  practical  requirement,  and  the 
index  gages  described  in  the  original  patent  were  aban- 
doned. A  patent  issued  in  1876  covers  the  various  devices 
later  designed  by  Westinghouse  to  constitute  a  complete 
train  air-signal  equipment,  and  described  their  application 
and  use.  In  this  patent  the  statement  is  made  that  the 
same  mode  of  operation  may  be  employed  in  connection 
with  a  separate  line  of  pipe  leading  to  the  escape  valves, 
but  it  is  preferable  to  employ  the  volume  of  air  in  the  brake 
pipe  for  the  purpose.  Later  on,  in  actual  service  it  was 
found  that  under  certain  conditions  brake  operations  inter- 
fered with  the  simultaneous  transmission  of  signals.  For 
a  time,  therefore,  it  was  thought  improbable  that  railway 


50  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

companies  would  consider  the  train  air  signal  of  sufficient 
value  to  justify  the  installation  of  an  entirely  separate  line 
of  pipe  for  that  purpose,  including  special  hose  and  coup- 
lings, but  the  prompt  adoption  of  the  separate  train  air- 
signal  system  by  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  due  in  large 
part  to  the  initiative  of  Mr.  T.  N.  Ely,  settled  this  ques- 
tion for  all  time,  and  it  soon  became  standard  on  all  pas- 
senger trains  equipped  with  automatic  brakes.  Various 
minor  changes  and  improvements  were  made  subsequently 
in  train  air-signal  apparatus,  but  it  is  today  essentially 
the  same  as  when  first  designed  and  put  into  service  by 
Westinghouse  in  1876. 

This  interlude  of  half  a  dozen  minor  things  has  seemed 
proper  for  two  reasons:  They  are  part  of  the  system  and 
they  help  to  bring  to  our  minds  something  of  the  versatility 
and  industry  of  the  man  of  whom  we  are  reading.  Now 
we  shall  resume  the  history  of  the  air  brake. 

THE  BURLINGTON  BRAKE  TRIALS 

When  we  take  up  the  story  again,  in  its  chronological 
order,  we  find  ourselves  facing  the  most  stirring  and  critical 
series  of  events  in  the  history  of  the  air  brake — the  Bur- 
lington Brake  Trials,  and  their  consequences.  That  inci- 
dent, comparatively  brief,  was  a  fine  example  of  victory 
snatched  from  defeat  by  the  fortitude  and  the  resource  of 
the  commander.  And  the  commander  was  at  the  moment 
almost  alone  in  the  world  in  thinking  that  victory  was  pos- 
sible. 

In  1885  there  was  no  kind  of  continuous  brake  in  much 
use  in  freight  service,  but  an  important  beginning  had  been 
made  on  the  Denver  &  Rio  Grande,  the  Central  Pacific, 
the  Northern  Pacific,  the  Atchison,  Topeka  and  Santa  Fe, 
and  the  Union  Pacific.  There  were  special  reasons  why 


THE  BURLINGTON  TRIALS  BEGIN  51 

these  roads  should  have  led  the  movement.  They  had 
mountain  grades;  their  trains  were  comparatively  short 
and  light,  and  their  interchange  of  freight  cars  with  other 
roads  was  comparatively  small.  But  for  two  or  three  years 
there  had  been  a  great  and  fast-growing  agitation  amongst 
the  people  for  means  to  reduce  the  dreadful  list  of  casualties 
to  freight-train  hands.  The  popular  leader  in  this  agitation 
was  Mr.  L.  S.  Coffin,  State  Railroad  Commissioner  of  Iowa. 
He  had  the  fiery  energy  of  a  Hebrew  prophet  and  the  en- 
gaging gifts  of  a  Yankee  politician.  He  was  saved  from 
being  a  fanatic  by  a  moderate  but  sufficient  sense  of  humor, 
and  he  really  loved  the  "railroad  boys."  A  good  cause, 
with  such  a  leader,  was  bound  to  prevail.  There  were  two 
perfectly  obvious  means  of  keeping  the  "boys"  off  the  roofs 
of  freight  cars  while  running  and  from  between  them  while 
coupling,  namely,  continuous  brakes  and  automatic  coup- 
lers. Both  of  these  would  have  come  into  universal  use 
in  time  for  technical  reasons,  but  Coffin's  movement  forced 
the  situation,  and  concerted  and  definite  action  by  the  rail- 
road companies  began. 

There  are  in  the  United  States  several  organizations  of 
operating  officers  of  railroads  which  have  been  working  for 
years  to  improve  practice  and  especially  to  develop  stand- 
ards. The  free  interchange  of  freight  cars  is  a  necessary 
feature  of  our  operating  methods.  A  car  of  the  Boston 
and  Maine  Railroad  is  on  the  Southern  Pacific  and  needs 
repairs;  or  a  car  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  is  on  the  Texas 
Pacific.  It  is  obvious  that,  for  good  service  and  cheap  ser- 
vice, the  parts  of  all  these  cars  must  be  reduced  to  a  few 
standards.  It  is  equally  obvious  that  for  progress,  con- 
trivance must  not  be  put  into  a  strait- jacket.  It  is  the 
ancient  principle  of  compromise.  With  this  ancient  prin- 
ciple, these  groups  of  railroads  officers  have  been  laboring 


52  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

for  more  than  a  generation.  The  Master  Car  Builders' 
Association  and  the  Master  Mechanics'  Association  have 
to  do  especially  with  rolling  stock,  and  when  the  use  of 
continuous  brakes  on  freight  cars  began  to  seem  possible, 
it  was  taken  up  for  systematic  study. 

The  first  report  of  the  Committee  on  Automatic  Freight- 
Car  Brakes  was  made  to  the  Master  Car  Builders'  Associa- 
tion in  1885.  In  it,  the  statement  was  made  that  a  com- 
plete report  on  Automatic  Freight-Car  Brakes  should  be 
accompanied  by  an  elaborate  and  thorough  series  of  com- 
parative trials  and  tests  which  were  quite  beyond  the  field 
of  the  committee.  Four  types  of  brakes  were  suggested 
for  investigation — buffer  brakes,  friction  brakes,  air  brakes, 
and  electric  brakes — with  a  brief  description  of  each  brake 
of  these  various  types  that  was  at  the  time  in  actual  ser- 
vice and  had  been  observed  by  members  of  the  committee. 
These  included  the  American,  the  Rote,  and  the  Prescott 
brakes  of  the  buffer  type,  the  Widdifield  and  Button  fric- 
tion brake,  and  the  Westinghouse  automatic  air  brake. 

At  the  convention  of  1886,  the  committee  made  no  formal 
report  but  announced  that  arrangements  had  been  con- 
cluded for  two  series  of  tests  on  the  Chicago,  Burlington, 
and  Quincy  Railroad  at  Burlington,  Iowa,  in  1886  and  1887. 
The  competitors  in  the  first  series  of  tests,  which  were  run 
from  May  29,  1886,  were  the  American  Brake  Company's 
direct  buffer  brake,  Eames  automatic  vacuum  brake,  Rote 
direct  buffer  brake,  Westinghouse  automatic  air  brake,  and 
the  Widdifield  and  Button  friction  buffer  brake.  The  suc- 
cession of  violent  shocks  experienced  with  all  forms  of  buffer 
brakes,  which  increased  inversely  as  the  length  of  the  stop, 
soon  eliminated  this  type  from  competition  and  left  the 
field  to  Westinghouse  and  Eames,  the  automatic  air  brake 
and  vacuum  brake. 


A  SERIOUS  SITUATION  53 

Nor  did  the  more  successful'  competitors  escape  criticism 
and  temporary  rejection  for  the  same  reason.  The  expected 
delays  in  charging  and  releasing  continuous  brakes  were 
shown  to  be  of  no  moment,  and  the  performance  of  the 
Westinghouse  brake  was  satisfactory  in  service  work,  but 
emergency  applications  of  the  brake  produced  such  violent 
shocks,  due  to  slow  serial  action,  that  the  committee  re- 
ported adversely  as  to  the  adoption  of  any  existing  brake 
as  standard  for  freight-train  operation.  At  the  same  time 
an  invitation  was  extended  to  all  brake  manufacturers  to 
take  part  in  a  second  series  of  trials  in  the  spring  of  1887. 
This  was  done  in  the  hope  that  meanwhile  such  improve- 
ments might  be  made  in  the  speed  of  emergency  applica- 
tions as  to  overcome  the  admitted  deficiency  in  the  air 
brake,  or  that  some  other  form  of  brake  might  be  submitted 
that  would  satisfactorily  meet  all  the  conditions  imposed. 

The  situation  was  serious,  not  to  say  alarming,  for  the 
great  unoccupied  field  was  in  freight  braking,  and  that  field 
was  immensely  greater  than  the  passenger  field  already 
pretty  well  cultivated.  The  cars  in  freight  service,  includ- 
ing "company"  cars,  are  from  forty-five  to  fifty  times  as 
many  as  those  in  passenger  service.  Many  of  the  air-brake 
men  in  the  Brake  Company  and  on  the  railroads  were 
gloomy.  But  it  was  the  kind  of  situation  which  Westing- 
house  enjoyed.  He  at  once  started  lines  of  inquiry  and 
experiment  that  culminated  in  the  production  of  the  so- 
called  quick-action  triple  valve.  Let  the  reader  carefully 
note  this,  for  it  was  an  epoch,  not  only  in  the  history  of  the 
brake,  but  in  the  history  of  land  transportation. 

,  THE  QUICK-ACTION  TRIPLE  VALVE 

The  first  form  of  this  valve  was  covered  by  U.  S.  Patent 
360,070,  issued  March  29, 1887.  The  improved  form  which 


54  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

later  became  the  standard  quick-action  triple  was  covered 
by  U.  S.  Patent  376,837,  issued  January  24,  1888.  Both 
forms  were  involved  in  the  litigation  that  followed  efforts 
made  to  share  in  the  commercial  success  attained  as  a 
result  of  the  great  invention  they  embodied. 

In  all  probability,  the  only  thing  that  prevented  the 
elimination  of  all  competition  in  this  field  during  the  life 
of  these  patents  was  the  fact  that  one  of  the  methods  of 
obtaining  quick  serial  action,  while  clearly  Westinghouse's 
invention  and,  in  fact,  the  most  obvious  and  the  first 
method  considered  by  him,  was  not  patented  because  of 
the  more  effective  method  which  at  once  claimed  and  ab- 
sorbed his  attention.  Fundamentally,  serial  quick  action 
of  the  brakes  was  obtained  by  locally  venting  brake-pipe 
pressure  at  each  triple  valve.  The  obvious  method  was  to 
vent  to  the  atmosphere,  and  at  first  this  was  done;  but 
Westinghouse  immediately  saw  the  saving  of  air  and  other 
benefits  to  be  gained  by  venting  this  pressure  directly  into 
the  brake  cylinder,  and  this  feature  was  effectually  covered 
by  patent  360,070.  A  dozen  words  would  have  covered 
venting  to  the  atmosphere  also.  These  words  were  not 
written  into  the  claim,  and  a  competing  company  has  built 
up  a  handsome  business  on  a  quick-action  valve  venting 
to  the  atmosphere.  Ben  Franklin  has  called  our  attention 
to  the  fact  that  for  want  of  a  horseshoe  nail  the  rider  was 
lost.  Perhaps  society  has  profited  by  the  competition, 
and  perhaps  it  was  as  well  for  the  world  that  Ben's  rider 
should  have  been  lost. 

The  great  significance  of  the  invention  of  the  quick-action 
brake  may  be  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  comparing  it  with 
the  plain  automatic  brake  used  in  the  1886  trials,  the  rate 
of  serial  action  was  so  increased  as  to  cause  a  reduction  in 
the  time  of  full  or  emergency  application  of  the  fiftieth  brake 


AR 


BC 


BP 


TYPE  "H"  AUTOMATIC 
QUICK-ACTION  TRIPLE  VALVE. 

The  valve  illustrated,  while  the  former  standard  for 
freight  service,  is  typical  of  all  quick-action  triple  valves. 
The  movement  of  the  triple  piston  4,  which  is  rendered  prac- 
tically air-tight  by  a  piston  packing  ring,  operates  the  at- 
tached slide-valve  mechanism  and  thereby  controls  the  flow 
of  compressed  air  from  the  auxiliary  reservoir  at  AR  into 
the  brake-cylinder  at  BC,  also  from  the  brake-cylinder  to 

the  atmosphere  through  the  exhaust-port  EX.  In  "full  release"  position,  as  shown,  standard  brake- 
pipe  pressure,  entering  at  UP,  fills  the  passages  a,  e,f,  g,  and  h  and  charges  the  auxiliary  reservoir  to  the 
same  pressure  through  the  feed-groove  i.  A  partial  reduction  of  brake-pipe  pressure  through  the  engi- 
neer's brake-valve  reduces  the  pressure  on  the  face  of  triple  piston  4,  and  the  higher  pressure  on  the 
auxiliary  reservoir  side  of  this  piston  causes  it  to  move  to  the  left  about  one-half  of  its  full  traverse, 
closing  the  feed-groove  and  shifting  the  position  of  the  slide  valve  attached  so  as  to  open  a  port  into 
the  passage  r  leading  to  the  brake-cylinder.  Sufficient  air  pressure  to  apply  the  brake  to  the  desired 
degree  thus  passes  into  the  brake-cylinder,  reducing  the  air  pressure  in  the  auxiliary  reservoir  until  the 
pressure  on  opposite  sides  of  triple  piston  4  is  again  in  substantial  equilibrium.  The  triple  piston  then 
moves  toward  its  former  full-release  position  sufficiently  to  close  the  port  opening  into  the  brake- 
cylinder  by  means  of  the  graduating  valve  7,  though  not  enough  to  move  the  main  slide  valve.  By 
additional  reductions  of  brake-pipe  pressure  the  graduating  valve  7  can  be  opened  and  closed  and 
brake-cylinder  pressure  gradually  increased  at  will  to  the  maximum  amount.  By  restoring  normal 
brake-pipe  pressure  the  triple  piston  is  at  once  forced  to  full-release  position,  carrying  the  slide  valve 
with  it,  closing  the  connection  between  the  auxiliary  reservoir  and  brake-cylinder  and  opening  the  free 
passage  from  the  brake-cylinder  to  the  atmosphere,  thereby  releasing  the  brakes. 

An  emergency  application  of  the  brakes  is  obtained  by  a  sudden  and  heavy  reduction  of  brake-pipe 
pressure,  which  forces  the  triple  piston  4  rapidly  to  traverse  its  full  stroke  to  the  left  until  stopped  by 
the  stem  21  and  spring  22.  The  large  port  S 'through  the  slide  valve  is  thus  uncovered  and  full  air 
pressure  previously  stored  in  the  auxiliary  reservoir  rushes  into  the  brake-cylinder  and  at  the  same 
time  forces  piston  8  downward,  unseating  the  valve  10,  and  brake-pipe  air  pressure,  being  still  some- 
what in  excess  of  the  depleted  auxiliary  reservoir  pressure,  raises  valve  15,  and  passing  directly  into 
the  brake-cylinder  still  further  increases  the  pressure  by  which  the  brakes  are  applied. 


TROUBLES  CONTINUE  55 

in  a  fifty-car  train  of  approximately  fourteen  seconds,  that 
is  to  say,  from  twenty  seconds  to  six  seconds.  There  was 
also  marked  increase  in  resultant  cylinder  pressure,  as  well 
as  in  the  rapidity  with  which  air  was  admitted  to  the  brake 
cylinder  in  such  applications,  due  to  the  larger  opening  from 
the  brake  pipe  to  the  brake  cylinder. 

These  improvements  in  the  speed  and  effectiveness  of 
the  Westinghouse  brake  led  to  the  belief  that  the  problem 
had  been  solved,  and  as  there  was  no  opportunity  to  test 
the  new  brake  on  a  fifty-car  train  before  the  opening  of 
the  second  series  of  trials,  the  Westinghouse  people  appeared 
at  Burlington  in  May  1887,  confident  of  complete  success. 
They  were  again  disappointed.  The  individual  efficiency 
of  each  brake  had  been  so  greatly  increased  as  to  completely 
overbalance  the  increased  rapidity  of  serial  action,  with 
the  result  that  while  the  stops  made  were  much  shorter, 
the  shocks  sustained  in  the  rear  cars  were  even  greater  than 
in  the  trials  of  1886.  Observers  and  recorders  in  the  rear 
car  were  shot  promiscuously  the  length  of  the  car,  and  there 
was  at  least  one  leg  broken.  Some  of  the  members  of  the 
committee  were  quite  cross  at  being  so  hustled,  and  the 
chances  of  a  favorable  report  faded  away.  Fortunately, 
an  alternative  had  been  provided  in  electrically  operated 
vent  valves  in  the  hose-couplings  at  four  points  in  the  train. 
These  valves  were  connected  by  wires  running  through  the 
pipes  and  energized  by  batteries  on  the  locomotive.  The 
engineer's  valve  was  provided  with  contact  points,  so  that 
in  emergency  applications  only,  the  electrically  operated 
vent  valves  could  be  opened  instantaneously  throughout 
the  train  and  the  brake  applied  with  almost  absolute  uni- 
formity. At  that  time  Westinghouse  had  no  faith  in  the 
practicability  of  electrically  operating  brakes  on  freight 
trains.  It  was  not  a  question  only  of  immediate  reliability, 


56  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

but  of  maintenance.  He  used  to  say:  "A  freight  car  has 
no  father  or  mother."  It  must  wander  over  a  continent 
and  stand  for  weeks  at  a  time  on  remote  sidings.  The  elec- 
trical apparatus  had  not  then  been  made  that  would  re- 
main operative  in  such  conditions.  But  the  electric  vent 
valve  showed  that  his  brake  could  be  worked  that  way, 
and  so  he  kept  his  position  on  equal  terms  with  his  com- 
petitors who  exhibited  electrically  operated  brakes. 

In  the  1887  trials,  besides  the  Westinghouse  automatic 
air  brake  and  the  Eames  vacuum  brake,  there  appeared 
the  Carpenter  electro  air  brake  and  the  Card  electric  brake. 
The  Carpenter  brake  used  compressed  air  as  the  braking 
force,  and  the  Card  brake  was  purely  an  electric  device. 
Both  depended  entirely  upon  electricity  for  the  operation 
of  the  braking  mechanism.  In  the  cases  of  Westinghouse 
and  Eames,  electricity  was  employed  as  as  auxiliary  to  a 
braking  device  complete  in  itself.  The  performance  of  the 
Carpenter  brake  was  ideal  when  it  worked,  but  in  the  last 
stop  of  the  test,  a  broken  wire  caused  a  complete  failure. 
This  incident  confirmed  Westinghouse  in  his  opinion  that 
electricity,  as  then  applied,  was  not  a  sufficiently  reliable 
agency  upon  which  to  depend  for  stopping  trains.  Its  use 
as  an  adjunct,  however,  seemed  established,  and  while  the 
committee  declined  to  make  any  definite  recommendation 
as  to  what  freight-train  brake  should  be  generally  adopted, 
and  suggested  that  the  subject  of  automatic  freight-train 
braking  should  be  continued  for  further  investigation,  with 
special  reference  to  the  reliability  of  the  electrical  element, 
it  reported  as  follows: 

First,  that  the  best  type  of  brake  for  long  freight  trains 
is  one  operated  by  air,  and  in  which  the  valves  are  actuated 
by  electricity. 


THE  SITUATION  STILL  WORSE  57 

Second,  that  this  type  of  brake  possesses  four  distinct 
advantages: 

a.  It  stops  the  train  in  the  shortest  possible  distance. 

b.  It  abolishes  shocks  and  their  attending  damages  to 
equipment. 

c.  It  releases  instantaneously. 

d.  It  can  be  graduated  perfectly. 

This  report,  while  eminently  fair,  was  a  verdict  against 
brakes  operated  by  air  alone,  and  again  Westinghouse  was 
faced  by  a  situation  critical  to  his  fortunes  and  dangerous 
to  the  best  interests  of  the  railroads.  Most  of  his  associates 
in  the  brake  company  and  his  best  friends  on  the  railroads 
thought  that  he  was  beaten  at  last.  An  editorial  writer  of 
the  time,  very  friendly  to  Westinghouse,  but  professionally 
bound  to  form  and  express  correct  opinions,  so  far  as  light 
was  given  to  him,  said:  "The  most  remarkable  feature  of 
the  trials  has  been  the  general  adoption  of  electricity,  which 
has  been  proved  capable  of  operating  the  valves  of  air 
brakes  so  as  to  secure  greater  quickness  of  action,  less  shock, 
and  better  graduation.  .  .  .  When  we  consider  the  great 
variety  of  purposes  for  which  it  is  now  used,  the  constant 
increase  of  its  application,  and  the  very  rapid  growth  in 
the  electrical  art  it  does  not  seem  very  sanguine  to  prophesy 
that  it  may  be  successfully  used  in  train  braking."  Writ- 
ing four  months  later,  after  the  astonishing  thing  that 
Westinghouse  had  done  in  the  meantime,  the  same  writer 
said:  "At  the  conclusion  of  those  trials  it  is  probable  that 
there  was  only  one  engineer  living  who  believed  that  the 
triple  valve  could  be  so  altered  as  to  stop  a  fifty-car  train, 
at  forty  miles  an  hour  on  a  fifty-three-foot  grade  in  less 
than  half  the  length  of  the  train  without  a  shock.  .  .  . 
When  he  announced  that  he  would  certainly  eliminate  the 


58  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

shock  in  the  emergency  stops  by  the  use  of  the  air  alone, 
he  was  listened  to  with  incredulity  by  the  best  informed 
students  of  this  great  mechanical  problem.  .  .  .  We  have 
long  regarded  the  eminent  services  of  Mr.  Westinghouse 
to  the  railroads  as  sufficient  to  place  him  on  a  level  with 
the  foremost  of  those  who  have  benefited  the  world  by  me- 
chanical inventions,  and  we  now  tender  to  him  our  hearty 
congratulations  on  this  new  and  most  important  achieve- 
ment whereby  the  necessity,  or  even  the  desirability,  of  an 
electric  complication  of  the  air  brake  is  completely  avoided." 
What  had  happened  was  that  Westinghouse  went  back  to 
Pittsburgh,  in  three  months  changed  the  air  brake  to  the 
form  which  endured  for  twenty  years  without  important 
modification,  and  in  four  months  proved  to  the  world  that 
the  longest  freight  trains  could  be  handled  with  air  and 
without  electrical  complications.  And  it  was  so  simple ! 

The  form  of  quick-action  triple  valve  was  produced  which 
afterward  became  standard  as  the  "376,837,"  and  in  which 
friction,  due  to  the  use  of  the  emergency  slide  valve,  was 
eliminated.  One-and-a-quarter-inch  brake  pipe  and  hose 
were  substituted  for  the  one-inch  pipe  and  hose  previously 
employed,  with  enlarged  angle  cocks,  hose  couplings,  and 
other  fittings.  These  changes  reduced  the  time  of  serial 
action  on  the  last  car  to  about  two  and  one-half  seconds 
as  compared  with  six  seconds,  and  an  empty  train  of  fifty 
cars  was  stopped  from  twenty  miles  an  hour  without  shock 
in  200  feet  or  less.  The  enlarged  brake  pipe  and  fittings 
also  materially  improved  the  service  functions  of  the  brake, 
especially  in  grade  work. 

After  experiments  that  demonstrated  these  facts  to  the 
satisfaction  of  Westinghouse  and  his  associates,  the  same 
train  which  was  used  in  the  1887  trials,  refitted  with  modi- 
fied and  improved  apparatus,  was  sent  on  a  tour  during 


WESTINGHOUSE  TRIUMPHANT  59 

October,  November,  and  December  1887  (the  Burlington 
trials  had  been  late  in  May),  and  a  series  of  unofficial  trials 
was  made  at  a  dozen  cities.  Mr.  Godfrey  W.  Rhodes,  who 
was  Superintendent  of  Motive  Power  of  the  Burlington  at 
the  time  of  the  trials,  and  who  was  chairman  of  the  Master 
Car  Builders'  Committee,  writes:  "Mr.  Westinghouse's  won- 
derful optimism  and  confidence  in  the  principle  of  air  power, 
after  the  early  failures  were  very  marked.  After  the  first 
collapse,  in  rapid  succession,  three  different  triples  were 
invented.  Finally  came  the  gem,  and  then,  greatest  of  all 
acts,  it  was  exhibited  all  over  the  country  in  operation  on 
a  fifty-car  train,  making  stops  with  no  shock  in  the  fiftieth 
car,  not  enough  jar  to  upset  a  glass  of  water,  a  marvellous 
condition  when  one  considers  the  wreck  and  disaster  that 
used  to  take  place  in  the  fiftieth  car."  These  trials  were 
attended  by  many  hundreds  of  railroad  managers,  motive- 
power  officials,  press  representatives,  prominent  citizens, 
and  technical  students.  The  results  were  so  successful 
that  the  committee  of  the  Master  Car  Builders'  Associa- 
tion on  freight-train  brakes  reported  to  the  meeting  of  the 
Association  in  June  1888,  as  follows: 

In  our  report  to  the  convention  last  year  the  main  con- 
clusion we  arrived  at  was  that  the  best  type  of  brake  for 
freight  service  was  one  operated  by  air,  and  in  which  the 
valves  were  actuated  by  electricity.  Since  that  time  your 
committee  has  not  made  any  further  trial  of  brakes,  but 
the  aspect  of  the  question  has  been  much  changed  by  the 
remarkable  results  achieved  in  non-official  trials  which 
have  taken  place  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  and  have 
been  witnessed  by  many  of  the  members  of  this  Association. 
These  trials  show  that  there  is  now  a  brake  in  the  market 
which  can  be  relied  on  as  efficient  in  any  condition  of  freight 
service. 


60  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

The  present  position  of  the  freight-train  brake  is  briefly 
as  follows: 

First. — Brakes  can  be,  practically  speaking,  simultane- 
ously applied,  without  electricity,  throughout  a  train  of 
fifty  freight  cars. 

Second. — Other  inventors  are  working  at  the  problem 
of  making  an  air  brake  which  will  be  rapid  in  action  and 
suitable  for  service  on  freight  trains.  We  also  understand 
that  inventors  are  working  at  buffer  and  electric  friction 
brakes,  but  we  have  no  reason  to  hope  that  brakes  on  these 
principles  can  successfully  compete  with  air  brakes. 

In  view  of  these  conditions,  your  committee  does  not 
recommend  the  adoption  of  any  particular  brake,  but  con- 
siders that  a  freight-train  brake  should  fulfil  the  following 
conditions: 

First. — It  shall  work  with  air  of  seventy  pounds'  pressure. 
A  reduction  of  eight  pounds  shall  set  the  brakes  lightly, 
and  a  restoration  of  pressure  shall  release  the  brakes. 

Second. — It  shall  work  without  shock  on  a  train  of  fifty 
cars. 

Third. — It  shall  stop  a  train  of  fifty  empty  freight  cars 
when  running  at  twenty  miles  per  hour  within  200  feet  on 
the  level. 

Fourth. — When  tried  on  a  train  of  fifty  cars  it  shall 
maintain  an  even  speed  of  fifteen  miles  an  hour  down  a 
grade  of  fifty-three  feet  per  mile  without  variation  of  more 
than  five  miles  per  hour  above  or  below  that  speed  at  any 
time  during  the  descent. 

Fifth. — The  brake  shall  be  capable  of  being  applied, 
released,  and  graduated  on  the  whole  train  by  the  engineer, 
or  without  any  assistance  from  brakemen  or  conductor. 

Sixth. — The  hose  coupling  shall  couple  with  the  present 
Westinghouse  coupling. 

All  of  the  conditions  of  this  report  fell  well  within  the 
demonstrated  performance  of  the  Westinghouse  automatic 
freight  brake,  and  the  battle  was  won.  It  was  one  of  West- 
inghouse's  swiftest  and  most  brilliant  victories,  and  it  is 


HIS  GREATEST  CONTRIBUTION  61 

a  classic  in  railroad  history.  Thus  the  standard  freight 
brake  for  the  ensuing  twenty  years  established  its  title  to 
supremacy.  When  the  next  broad  advance  hi  the  art  of 
freight  braking  came,  through  the  invention  of  the  quick 
service  or  "K"  triple  valve,  Westinghouse,  while  still 
President  of  the  Westinghouse  Air  Brake  Company  and 
the  director  of  its  general  policies,  was  not  personally  active 
in  the  development  of  this  improved  device. 

Any  fairly  complete  investigation  of  the  subject  leads 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  greatest  original  contribution 
to  the  art  of  power  braking  was  made  by  Westinghouse  in 
the  invention,  development,  and  perfection  of  the  triple 
valve.  From  its  beginning,  that  device  was,  and  it  still 
remains,  the  heart  of  the  air-brake  system.  It  seems  a  far 
cry  from  the  plain  triple  of  1872  to  the  universal  valve  of 
today,  but  the  trail  is  clearly  marked  and  the  development 
of  the  one  into  the  other  is  no  more  or  less  remarkable  than 
the  development  of  Stevenson's  Rocket  into  the  Mallet  com- 
pound locomotive  of  today,  or  of  Fulton's  Clermont  into 
the  modern  Atlantic  liner.  Beyond  mechanical  modifica- 
tions of  more  or  less  importance,  the  invention  of  an  im- 
proved engineer's  brake  valve  in  1896  and  of  a  quick-service 
triple  in  1907,  Westinghouse's  direct  personal  contributions 
to  the  air-brake  art  ended  with  the  perfection  of  the  quick- 
action  triple  valve  in  1887.  When,  in  order  to  cope  with 
the  changing  conditions  of  transportation,  the  next  step 
forward  became  necessary,  he  was  so  deeply  engaged  in 
other  work,  largely,  but  by  no  means  exclusively,  of  an  ad- 
ministrative character,  that  the  Air  Brake  Company  was 
forced  to  rely  upon  the  engineering  talent  that  in  the  mean- 
time had  been  developed  in  its  own  ranks  or  acquired  by 
additions  thereto.  While  it  is  not  within  the  province  of  this 
biography  to  describe  these  later  developments,  it  is  proper 


62  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

here  to  record  that  the  inventor  chiefly  responsible  for  the 
later  devices  by  which  the  art  was  still  further  advanced, 
referring  particularly  to  the  K  type  of  freight  triple  valve, 
and  LN  passenger  brake  equipment,  and  finally  the  uni- 
versal valve,  was  W.  V.  Turner,  in  many  respects  a  worthy 
successor  of  the  pioneer  whose  genius  was  his  constant  in- 
spiration. Touching  his  own  inventions  in  relation  to  the 
prior  art,  Mr.  Turner  has  well  said:  "It  is  truly  remark- 
able that  through  all  subsequent  improvements  not  one  of 
the  original  functions  of  the  triple  valve  has  been  discarded, 
but  that  they  have  been  extended  and  expanded,  and  many 
new  functions  added." 

ENGLISH  EXPERIENCES 

The  beginning  of  the  air  brake  and  its  development  were 
in  the  United  States,  and  we  have  followed  the  story  so 
far  with  but  little  mention  of  what  was  done  abroad.  But 
Westinghouse's  doings  hi  England  and  on  the  Continent 
were  an  interesting  part  of  the  history,  and  some  of  the 
things  done  were  not  only  interesting  but  of  distinct  im- 
portance in  the  engineering  development  of  the  brake. 
They  destroyed  a  law  of  mechanics  which  had  almost  the 
standing  of  a  law  of  nature,  and  they  exploded  an  ancient 
mechanical  fallacy  which  to  many  minds  was  a  law.  They 
established  principles  which  are  useful  not  only  in  braking 
but  in  other  fields  of  applied  mechanics. 

We  have  seen  that  the  first  air-braked  train  was  run  out 
of  Pittsburgh  in  September  1868,  and  that  less  than  three 
years  later  Westinghouse  was  in  England  with  his  brake. 
We  have  also  seen  that  hi  that  first  visit  an  impetus  was 
given  to  the  idea  of  making  the  brake  automatic.  The 
next  year,  1872,  the  Westinghouse  Continuous  Brake  Com- 
pany was  organized  for  handling  export  business.  This 


IN  ENGLAND  AGAIN  63 

company,  a  Pennsylvania  corporation,  maintained  a  tech- 
nical and  sales  force  in  England,  with  some  shop  facilities, 
but  until  the  latter  part  of  1881,  when  its  corporate  suc- 
cessor, the  Westinghouse  Brake  Company,  Limited,  was 
chartered  under  the  English  Companies'  Act,  practically 
all  brake  equipments  supplied  for  the  European  trade  were 
made  in  America.  At  the  time  of  his  second  visit,  March 
1874,  148  locomotives  and  724  car  equipments  of  the 
straight-air  system  had  been  so  furnished,  and  the  Westing- 
house  name  and  product  had  become  well  known  in  rail- 
way circles.  The  introduction  of  the  Westinghouse  auto- 
matic brake,  the  principal  object  of  the  1874  trip  was, 
therefore,  a  much  less  difficult  task  than  that  of  1871.  Con- 
sequently, when  he  returned  to  England  for  the  third  time 
in  May  1875,  the  automatic  brake  was  in  service  on  several 
important  railways.  In  the  meantime,  other  ambitious 
inventors  had  been  busy  and  continuous  brakes  of  various 
types  were  in  service  or  were  claimants  for  recognition. 

In  England,  the  most  dangerous  competitor  of  the  com- 
pressed-air brake  was  the  vacuum  brake,  originally  brought 
out  in  the  United  States  under  a  patent  issued  to  John  Y. 
Smith  of  Pittsburgh  in  1872.  The  principle  of  vacuum- 
brake  operation  was  used  by  Nehemiah  Hodge  of  North 
Adams,  Massachusetts  (patented  1860,  extended  1874,  re- 
issued to  George  Westinghouse,  Jr.,  assignee,  1879),  but 
Smith,  by  substituting  an  ejector,  or  what  he  calls  an  in- 
jector-exhaust, for  the  vacuum  pump  specified  by  Hodge, 
greatly  improved  the  chances  of  the  vacuum  brake  in  com- 
petition with  the  straight-air  brake.  Westinghouse  had 
promptly  entered  the  vacuum-brake  field,  and  besides  secur- 
ing the  assignment  of  the  original  Hodge  patent,  he  took 
out  patents  on  improvements  and  refinements  both  in  the 
United  States  and  abroad,  so  that  in  England,  in  1875,  he 


64  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

was  prepared  to  furnish  either  vacuum  or  compressed-air 
brakes  as  might  be  required. 

The  conflicting  claims  of  the  various  inventors  and  manu- 
facturers were  vocal  in  England  at  that  time,  and  led  up 
to  the  first  and  most  important  series  of  competitive  brake 
tests  of  early  days.  These  tests,  known  as  the  Newark 
trials/ took  place  on  the  Nottingham  and  Newark  Division 
of  the  Midland  Railway  in  England,  June  9, 1875.  On  com- 
plete trains  of  thirteen  carriages  and  two  vans  continuous 
brake  equipments  were  installed,  representing  mechanical, 
hydraulic,  vacuum,  and  compressed-air  brake  systems,  as 
follows:  Fay's  hand  brake  and  Clark  &  Webb's  chain  brake, 
Barker's  and  Clark's  hydraulic  brakes,  Smith's  and  West- 
inghouse's  vacuum  brakes  and  Steel  &  JMcInnes's  and 
Westinghouse's  automatic  compressed-air  brakes.  These 
tests  were  conducted  by  the  Railway  Companies'  Asso- 
ciation under  the  direction  of  the  Royal  Commission  on 
Railway  Accidents. 

Comparing  the  best  stops  made,  the  results  demonstrated 
the  superiority  of  the  Westinghouse  automatic  brake,  with 
a  stop  of  777  feet  from  fifty  miles  an  hour,  as  compared 
with  901  feet  by  Clark's  hydraulic  brake,  1158  feet  by  Steel 
&  Mclnnes's  compressed-air  brake  and  1477  feet  by  the 
Smith  vacuum  brake.  In  commenting  on  these  results, 
Engineering  of  June  25,  1875,  says: 

Lastly,  we  come  to  the  Westinghouse  automatic  arrange- 
ment, and  this,  we  think  we  may  safely  say,  is  shown 
by  the  recent  trials  to  possess  all  the  requisites  of  a  thor- 
oughly efficient  continuous  brake.  This  brake  proved  more 
prompt  and  powerful  in  its  action  than  any  of  its  competi- 
tors. ...  Its  performances  as  they  stand  were  far  beyond 
those  of  any  other  brake.  As  regards  durability  and  gen- 
eral reliability  in  every-day  practice  also  it  should  be  re- 


GALTON-WESTINGHDUSE  STUDIES  65 

membered  that  no  brake  sent  to  the  trials  has  been  so  thor- 
oughly tested  as  the  Westingnollse>  and  this  is  a  fact  which 
it  is  well  to  bear  in  mind. 

Surely  this  is  a  remarkable  tribute  for  that  day  to  an 
American  invention  in  the  face  of  strong  English  competi- 
tion. It  should  be  noted,  however,  that  notwithstanding 
this  early  demonstration  of  the  superiority  of  compressed- 
air  brakes  over  vacuum  brakes,  which  was  repeated  in  later 
tests,  the  vacuum  brake  is  still  used  on  a  much  larger 
mileage  of  English  railways  than  the  compressed-air  type. 
On  the  other  hand,  in  America,  vacuum  brakes  long  ago 
completely  disappeared  from  service. 

The  three  or  four  years  following  the  Newark  trials 
passed  without  any  outstanding  incident  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  art  of  power  braking  beyond  the  gradual  evolu- 
tion of  the  plain  triple  valve  into  its  final  form,  the  modi- 
fication of  various  subsidiary  devices,  and  the  relatively 
slow  introduction  of  the  automatic  brake,  including  the 
change  over  from  straight  air.  The  latter,  so  far  as  new 
business  was  concerned,  practically  concluded  its  Amer- 
ican career  in  1878.  Meanwhile,  in  England,  the  proponents 
of  straight-air,  automatic-air,  and  vacuum  brakes,  con- 
tinued to  wage  vigorous  warfare  on  behalf  of  their  favorite 
systems.  Westinghouse,  who,  after  returning  to  America 
in  1875,  was  again  in  Europe  for  his  longest  stay,  extending 
from  July  1876,  to  August  1879,  naturally  took  an^  active 
interest  in  the^controversy. 

THE  GALTON-WESTINGHOUSE  EXPERIMENTS 

During  the  discussion  of  a  paper  relating  to  brakes  which 
was  presented  at  a  meeting  of  the  Institution  of  Mechanical 
Engineers  late  in  1877  or  early  in  1878,  Westinghouse 


66  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

called  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  testing  the  action  of 
several  kinds  of  brake  shoes,  he  had  observed  a  very  marked 
difference  in  the  friction  of  the  shoes  upon  the  wheels  at 
high  speeds  and  low  speeds.  Let  the  reader  note  this  and 
keep  it  in  mind.  Westinghouse  believed  that  a  determina- 
tion of  the  facts  was  of  great  importance  and  volunteered 
to  design  and  make  the  necessary  automatic  recording  ap- 
paratus, and  to  carry  out  a  system  of  experiments  under 
the  direction  of  any  person  who  should  be  appointed  by 
the  President  of  the  Institution  to  supervise  the  tests  and 
report  them.  The  Institution  immediately  delegated  Cap- 
tain Douglas  Galton,  who  directed  the  experiments,  which 
took  place  on  the  London,  Brighton,  and  South  Coast  Rail- 
way during  the  year  1878.  Thus  originated  the  famous 
Galton-Westinghouse  tests  or  experiments,  which  were  the 
first  investigation  of  this  character  to  be  carried  out  on  a 
practical  scale  and  the  results  of  which  may  still  be  con- 
sidered the  most  reliable  experimental  data  in  existence 
on  the  relations  of  friction,  speed,  and  weight.  Galton 
achieved  distinction  and  became  Sir  Douglas  Galton, 
C.B.,  D.C.L.,  F.R.S. 

Three  papers  entitled  "The  Effect  of  Brakes  upon  Rail- 
way Trains,"  submitted  by  Captain  Galton  at  meetings 
of  the  Institution  of  Mechanical  Engineers  held  in  Paris 
June  13,  1878,  in  Manchester  October  24  of  the  same 
year,  and  in  London  April  24,  1879,  fully  describe  these 
remarkable  experiments,  and  the  discussions  that  followed 
in  each  case  are  scarcely  less  interesting.  These  papers 
and  discussions  were  reprinted  by  the  Westinghouse  Air 
Brake  Company  in  a  publication  issued  in  1894,  bearing 
the  same  title,  copies  of  which  may  be  found  in  most  tech- 
nical libraries. 

The  part  taken  by  Westinghouse  in  these  investigations 


GALTON-WESTINGHOUSE  STUDIES  67 

is  suggested  by  the  following  sentences  from  Captain  Gal- 
ton's  papers,  and  from  the  minutes  of  the  meetings  at  which 
they  were  presented : 

Experiments  connected  with  the  action  of  brakes  on 
railway  trains  require  very  delicate  apparatus,  and  the  au- 
thor wishes  to  explain  that  the  credit  of  the  design  of  the 
apparatus  used  in  these  experiments,  and  of  the  successful 
manner  in  which  the  apparatus  was  applied,  belongs  en- 
tirely to  Mr.  Westinghouse. — (Galton's  first  paper.) 

He  has  to  repeat  his  thanks  to  Mr.  Westinghouse  for  the 
beautiful  apparatus  contrived  by  him,  and  for  the  very 
valuable  assistance  he  has  rendered  in  carrying  out  these 
experiments. — (Galton's  second  paper.) 

The  President  said  that  in  moving  a  vote  of  thanks  to 
Captain  Galton  for  the  very  great  labor  he  had  undergone 
in  bringing  before  the  Institution  the  results  contained  in 
his  paper,  he  thought  he  ought  not  to  omit  the  name  of 
Mr.  Westinghouse.  They  had  just  heard  from  Captain 
Galton  that  in  devising  the  means  of  arriving  at  the  con- 
clusions, Mr.  Westinghouse  had  done  the  greatest  possible 
service. 

The  way  in  which  Mr.  Westinghouse  had  gone  to  work, 
directly  he  found  that  something  was  wanted,  to  design 
precisely  the  thing  that  was  wanted,  was  as  good  an  illus- 
tration of  the  spirit  in  which  engineers  ought  to  work  as 
could  be  found  anywhere. — (Discussion  of  Galton's  third 
paper.) 

The  most  surprising  fact  established  by  these  trials  was 
that  the  friction  between  two  bodies,  one  or  both  being  in 
motion,  varies  inversely  as  their  relative  speed.  Westing- 
house  had  already  observed  this  phenomenon,  and  that 
observation  brought  about  the  trials,  as  we  have  seen.  The 
following  report  of  his  remarks  in  discussing  Galton's  third 


68  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

paper  shows  that  his  thought  had  been  turned  in  the  same 
direction  by  things  seen  in  quite  another  field: 

Mr.  Geo.  Westinghouse,  Jr.,  had  long  ago  observed  a 
plain-edged  disk  cutting  through  large  iron  beams  in  a  roll- 
ing-mill, and  had  seen  that  without  getting  heated  itself, 
it  would  cut  through  twelve  or  fourteen  inches  of  iron  with- 
out difficulty.  That  had  led  him  to  the  opinion  that  there 
was  a  difference  between  friction  at  high  and  at  low  speeds : 
for  such  a  disk,  running  at  a  circumferential  speed  of  5000 
feet  per  minute,  would  scarcely  cut  anything,  but  at  12,000 
feet  per  minute  it  would  cut  hard  steel.  He  had  seen 
hard  steel  thus  cut  with  a  piece  of  soft  wrought  iron.  His 
own  idea  in  regard  to  the  decrease  in  friction  owing  to  time 
was  that  instead  of  acting  as  a  lubricant,  the  metal  that  was 
cut  off  might  act  as  little  rollers,  in  that  way  reducing  the 
friction.  It  was  very  difficult,  however,  to  ascertain  the 
true  cause,  because  it  was  impossible  actually  to  see  what 
took  place. 

The  primary  object  of  these  trials  was  to  determine  and 
define  the  basic  principles  that  underlie  the  use  of  brakes 
on  railway  trains.  Since  some  of  the  trial  trains  were 
equipped  with  the  Westinghouse  automatic,  compressed- 
air  brake  and  others  with  vacuum  brakes,  considerable 
rivalry  was  developed,  and  the  relative  merits  of  these  sys- 
tems were  deduced  and  argued  from  the  length  of  the  stops 
made  at  various  times  and  under  various  conditions.  Gen- 
erally speaking,  the  results  indicated  the  superiority  of  the 
Westinghouse  brake,  but  this  was  not  commented  upon  by 
Captain  Galton  in  his  reports,  and  since  the  weight  of  the 
trains  and  other  conditions  varied  greatly,  no  good  pur- 
pose could  be  served  now  by  republishing  the  figures.  The 
important  conclusions  reached  were  stated  by  Captain 
Galton  in  his  second  paper  as  follows: 

1st.  The  skidding  of  the  wheel,  so  that  it  slides  on  the 


GALTON-WESTINGHOUSE  STUDIES  69 

rail,  is  altogether  a  mistake,  so  far  as  rapid  stopping  is  con- 
cerned. 

2d.  The  pressure  with  which  the  brake  blocks  are  ap- 
plied to  the  wheels  should  be  as  high  as  possible,  short  of 
the  point  which  would  cause  the  wheels  to  be  skidded  and 
to  slide  on  the  rails. 

3d.  The  rotation  of  the  wheel  is  arrested  as  soon  as  the 
friction  between  the  brake  block  and  the  wheel  exceeds 
the  adhesion  between  the  wheel  and  the  rail;  and  there- 
fore the  amount  of  pressure  which  should  be  applied  to  the 
wheel  is  a  function  of  the  weight  which  the  wheel  brings 
upon  the  rail.  The  value  of  this  function  varies  with  the 
adhesion;  hence,  with  a  high  adhesion  a  greater  pressure 
can  be  applied  and  a  greater  measure  of  retardation  ob- 
tained than  with  a  low  one. 

4th.  In  practice  and  as  a  question  of  safety  it  is  of  the 
greatest  importance,  in  the  case  of  a  train  travelling  at  a 
high  speed,  that  speed  should  be  reduced  as  rapidly  as  pos- 
sible on  the  first  application  of  the  brakes. 

5th.  The  friction  produced  by  the  pressure  of  the  brake 
block  on  the  wheel  is  less  as  the  speed  of  the  train  is  greater; 
to  produce  the  maximum  retardation  so  far  as  speed  is  con- 
cerned, the  pressure  should  thus  be  greatest  on  first  applica- 
tion, and  should  be  diminished  as  the  speed  decreases,  in 
order  to  prevent  the  wheels  from  being  skidded  in  making 
a  stop.  It  should  be  added  that  the  coefficient  of  friction 
decreases  as  the  time  increases  during  which  the  brakes  are 
kept  on;  but  this  decrease  is  slower  than  the  increase  of 
the  same  coefficient  due  to  the  decrease  of  speed;  it  has 
therefore  little  influence  in  the  case  of  quick  stops. 

6th.  The  maximum  pressure  should  be  applied  to  the 
wheels  as  rapidly  as  possible,  and  uniformly  in  all  parts  of 
the  train. 


70  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

The  first  conclusion  is  that  exploding  of  an  ancient  fallacy 
of  which  we  spoke  above.  It  will  astonish  some  to  know 
that  such  a  fallacy  persisted  as  late  as  1878.  But  that  it 
did  then  persist  is  certain.  In  the  discussion  of  one  of  Gal- 
ton's  papers  a  speaker  said  that  the  result  mentioned  in 
the  paper  as  to  skidding  was  certainly  somewhat  surpris- 
ing after  the  deductions  drawn  by  the  Royal  Commission 
on  Railway  Accidents  to  the  effect  that  when  wheels  were 
skidded  they  retarded  the  force  of  the  train  more  than  when 
revolving.  During  the  further  discussion  the  Royal  Com- 
mission found  supporters,  but  one  speaker  said  that  it  had 
been  well  known  by  every  practical  engine  driver  for  the 
last  twenty-five  years  that  the  skidding  of  wheels  was  a 
great  mistake.  That  depends  somewhat  perhaps  on  the 
definition  of  the  word  "practical."  Many  old-time  rail- 
way-operating men  will  testify  that  the  Royal  Commission 
theory  was  not  only  ancient  but  was  existent  years  after 
the  Galton-Westinghouse  trials,  and  we  find  a  United  States 
Patent  granted  to  T.  E.  Sickles  as  long  ago  as  1857,  which 
in  part  reads  as  follows:  "If  he  (the  engineer)  wishes  to 
stop  as  suddenly  as  possible,  he  opens  to  its  full  width  the 
communication  to  the  atmosphere,  whereby  the  weights 
acting  with  their  full  force,  cause  the  brakes  to  be  applied 
and  the  wheels  of  the  car  to  slide." 

It  was  useful,  even  if  hardly  necessary,  to  prove  and  em- 
phasize the  facts  about  skidding.  It  was  well  worth  while 
to  show  to  men  deeply  interested  that  the  stopping  effect 
of  sliding  wheels  is  less  than  one-third  of  the  stopping  effect 
of  the  brakes  while  the  wheels  revolve.  That  was  a  good 
thing  to  know,  but  the  fifth  conclusion,  that  the  coefficient 
of  friction  increases  as  the  speed  falls,  is  very  important. 
It  radically  limits  and  modifies  one  of  Morin's  laws  of  fric- 
tion, which  had  been  accepted  since  1834  by  writers, 


FRICTION  AND  SPEED  71 

teachers,  and  practitioners.  It  shows  that  to  get  ideal 
brake  performance  the  greatest  permissible  pressure  must 
be  used  at  high  speeds,  to  be  gradually  reduced  as  the  speed 
fell.  This  sets  a  mark  toward  which  to  advance  in  build- 
ing up  the  ideal  brake  system.  It  sounds  simple,  but  the 
physical  conditions  of  braking  are  extremely  complicated. 
We  shall  consider  now  for  a  moment  the  practical  deduc- 
tions from  the  vital  fifth  conclusion  from  the  Galton-West- 
inghouse  trials;  the  friction  between  brake  shoe  and  wheel 
is  less  as  the  speed  of  the  train  is  greater;  to  produce  the 
maximum  retardation  so  far  as  speed  is  concerned,  the  pres- 
sure should  be  greatest  on  first  application  and  should  be 
diminished  as  the  speed  decreases;  this  to  keep  the  shoes 
from  seizing  the  wheels  and  sliding  them  on  the  rails.  The 
reader  has  noted,  no  doubt,  that  the  stopping  effect  of  a 
skidded  wheel  is  about  one-third  of  the  stopping  effect  of 
a  wheel  braked  but  still  turning.  He  may  have  seen  this 
in  running  his  automobile.  The  obvious  thing  was  to  use 
a  relief  valve,  the  action  of  which  should  depend  on  time 
or  the  speed  of  the  train.  But  wheels  slide  easier  on  a  wet 
rail  than  on  a  dry  one.  The  best  rail  is  clean  and  dry.  The 
worst  rail  is  one  wet  with  drizzling  rain  or  fog,  and  still  hav- 
ing on  it  dirt  and  oil  from  passing  traffic.  Between  is  the 
rail  washed  clean  but  still  wet.  The  conditions  may  be 
modified  by  sanding  the  rail  with  clean  sand,  well  screened. 
Nobody  has  yet  been  able  to  make  a  relief  valve  intelligent 
enough  to  discriminate  between  all  these  varying  condi- 
tions, although  the  triple  valve  can  almost  talk.  Westing- 
house  took  out  two  patents  in  1879  for  a  pressure-reducing 
valve,  designed  to  reduce  the  brake-shoe  pressure  as  the 
speed  falls,  and  in  1893  Messrs.  Parke,  Clark,  and  Hogan 
of  the  Brake  Company  took  a  patent  for  an  apparatus  "  in 
which  a  higher  degree  of  braking  power  than  heretofore 


72  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

may  be  made  available  for  emergency  application  of  the 
brakes  in  the  operation  of  trains  at  exceptionally  high 
speeds."  At  the  time  the  movement  for  very  fast  pas- 
senger trains  was  under  strong  headway.  This  was  es- 
pecially true  in  the  United  States,  but  some  trains  famous 
for  speed  were  running  in  England  and  France.  The 
writer,  being  a  somewhat  "reactionary"  person,  and  hav- 
ing been  considerably  influenced  by  the  conservative  teach- 
ings of  Westinghouse,  ventures  to  express  here  the  hope 
and  the  belief  that  it  will  be  a  long  time  before  the  railroads 
return  to  the  wasteful  and  dangerous  passenger-train  speeds 
of  the  last  decade  of  the  last  century  and  the  first  decade 
of  this. 

The  inventors  of  the  Parke  apparatus  say:  "Our  inven- 
tion is  particularly  designed  for  trains  which  are  run  at  ex- 
tremely high  speeds.  We  provide  means  whereby  the  ordi- 
nary graduated  application  may  be  made  when  running 
at  ordinary  speeds  .  .  .  and  a  very  powerful  application 
may  be  made  when  the  train  is  moving  at  high  speed  and 
the  wheels  are  revolving  at  their  greatest  velocity.  We 
also  provide  for  the  gradual  reduction  of  the  force  of  such 
powerful  applications  as  the  speed  of  the  train  slackens  in 
order  to  prevent  the  sliding  of  the  wheels." 

The  expectations  built  upon  the  various  reducing  con- 
trivances were  only  partly  realized.  This  was  due  not  only 
to  the  impossibility  of  endowing  a  mechanism  with  intel- 
ligence, but  also  to  actual  physical  and  financial  reasons. 
The  brake  rigging  in  universal  use  would  not  stand  greatly 
increased  strains,  and  the  railroads  could  not  reasonably 
and  properly  rebuild  all  their  passenger  brake  gear  to  fit 
the  requirements  of  a  few  very  fast  trains.  So  an  ingenious 
and  fair  compromise  was  reached  which  served  excellently 
for  many  years  until  the  standards  of  practice  were  slowly 


HIGH-SPEED  BRAKING  73 

built  up  to  the  high-efficiency  brake  now  in  general  use  in 
this  country. 

We  say  "in  this  country,"  and  it  has  been  said  elsewhere, 
that  the  vacuum  brake  is  still  considerably  more  used  in 
the  British  Isles  than  the  compressed-air  brake.  That  is 
by  no  means  due  to  the  invincible  prejudice  of  the  Britisher. 
He  naturally  prefers  the  slower  and  more  comfortable  stop 
that  goes  with  a  relatively  light  braking  force,  and  his  con- 
ditions permit  him  to  enjoy  it  in  safety.  He  has  no  level 
crossings;  his  right  of  way  is  protected  from  trespassers — 
man  or  beast;  his  lines  are  all  well  signalled,  and  there  is 
higher  discipline  amongst  the  men,  and  more  general  re- 
spect for  orders.  The  need  for  quick  stops  is  not  nearly 
so  frequent,  or  so  great,  as  with  us,  although  the  passenger- 
train  speeds  are  quite  as  great  and  the  freight-train  speeds 
are  greater.  On  the  other  hand,  the  conditions  that  make 
the  need  of  emergency  stops  greater  in  this  country  are 
not  due  to  American  recklessness,  any  more  than  the  use 
of  a  less  powerful  brake  in  Great  Britain  is  due  to  British 
prejudice.  The  railroads  here  were  built  to  create  cities 
in  a  wilderness;  there  they  were  built  to  serve  cities  already 
existing,  in  a  settled  and  populous  land.  Here  labor  and 
money  were  scarce,  and  wages  and  interest  were  high;  there 
they  were  relatively  cheap.  All  the  essential  differences  in 
the  railroads  of  the  two  countries  may  be  explained  by  these 
fundamental  economic  facts. 

By  the  compromise  spoken  of  above,  provision  was  made 
for  high-speed  braking  without  disturbing  the  brake  ap- 
paratus as  it  existed.  For  high-speed  braking  air  was  sup- 
plied to  the  train  line  at  110  pounds  per  square  inch;  for 
ordinary  service  braking  at  70  pounds.  Two  pump  gover- 
nors were  put  on  the  locomotive,  one  or  the  other  being 
cut  in  as  high  or  low  pressure  was  required.  A  relief  device 


74  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

was  attached  to  each  brake  cylinder,  and  this  was  very  in- 
genious. It  kept  the  cylinder  pressure  from  rising  to  the 
point  of  skidding  wheels  in  service  stops,  and  permitted 
the  high  pressure  to  be  used  in  emergency  stops;  then  the 
emergency  pressure  was  gradually  and  automatically  re- 
duced to  service  pressure.  This  seems  to  be  a  good  deal 
for  an  unintelligent  machine  to  do.  An  expert,  after  de- 
scribing the  device,  says  "this  seems  a  very  crude  adapta- 
tion of  the  refined  methods  and  results  indicated  in  the 
Galton-Westinghouse  tests,  but  in  practice  it  worked  ad- 
mirably and  served  a  useful  purpose  for  many  years,  and 
ultimately  became  standard  on  passenger  equipment." 
One's  notions  of  crudeness  and  refinement  depend  upon 
the  stage  of  civilization  that  he  has  reached.  Most  of  us 
who  have  looked  at  half  a  dozen  drawings  of  this  relief  de- 
vice, and  read  several  pages  of  Patent  Office  specifications 
describing  it  think  of  it  as  sufficiently  refined. 

But  the  reader  who  has  had  the  patience  to  read  what  is 
here  written  of  the  air  brake  has  discovered  that  the  art  of 
tram  braking  is  an  elaborate  structure,  the  building  of  which 
has  taken  fifty  years  of  high  effort.  The  inventions  of  West- 
inghouse  and  of  other  men  in  the  organization  were  the 
foundations  of  the  art,  but  only  that.  On  these  foundations 
a  structure  of  applied  science  was  built  through  fifty  years 
of  effort.  Research,  design,  experiment,  and  test  went  on, 
and  brilliant  things  were  done  in  the  gradual  development 
of  a  delicate  and  complicated  apparatus.  Not  the  least 
important  matter  was  the  education  of  the  users.  In  1888 
the  Brake  Company  put  in  service  an  instruction  car  which 
wandered  over  the  continent  for  thirty  years,  giving  free 
education  to  the  men  who  handled  the  brakes  in  service. 
It  is  believed  that  no  university  in  the  country  has  a  larger 
body  of  graduates  than  this  travelling  school.  Closely 


THE  INSTRUCTION  CAR  75 

allied  to  it  was  the  systematic  investigation  of  accidents. 
If  a  collision  occurred,  Westinghouse  men  were  sent  to  the 
spot  to  help  the  railroad  men  to  find  the  causes.  The  quick 
explanation  of  a  collision  used  to  be  "the  air  brakes  failed 
to  work."  In  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  perhaps  in  ninety-nine 
cases  out  of  one  hundred,  this  was  not  true;  but  it  was  the 
easy  refuge  of  a  negligent  engineer  or  flagman,  and  being 
so  simple,  was  accepted  in  the  newspaper  offices.  The 
process  of  education  was  tedious.  The  instruction  car  was 
one  of  Westinghouse's  personal  helps  to  the  process.  After 
tnirty  years  it  was  dismantled,  for  the  Air  Brake  Associa- 
tion, born  in  this  car  in  1893,  had  grown  to  be  a  serious  and 
influential  body,  including  makers  and  users  of  air-brake 
equipment,  and  the  railroads  had  established  their  own 
brake  schools. 

This  car  carried  the  brake  apparatus  for  a  thirty-car 
train,  complete  from  the  engineer's  brake-valve  to  the  con- 
nections with  the  brake  gear  under  the  cars.  The  pupils 
could  be  taught  to  handle  the  brakes  and  could  see  many 
of  the  results  better  than  on  a  train.  The  car  carried 
a  steam  boiler  and  air  compressor,  a  water  pump  and  a 
dynamo  to  generate  its  own  lighting  current.  It  had  an 
office  and  bedroom  for  the  instructors,  so  it  was  quite  at 
home  on  a  prairie  siding.  On  the  walls  were  valves,  cylin- 
ders, air  pump,  and  other  apparatus,  the  actual  parts  cut 
through  in  section.  Four  classes  a  day  of  engineers  and 
firemen,  and  two  classes  of  conductors  and  trainmen,  were 
run  through  the  car.  They  were  taught,  then  quizzed  and 
rated,  and  finally  got  such  certificates  as  they  deserved. 
Keen  students  sometimes  followed  the  car  400  or  500  miles 
to  get  more  information  and  higher  rating.  Several  presi- 
dents of  big  railways  and  men  eminent  in  other  places 
started  in  the  engine  cab,  and  it  is  impossible  even  to  guess 


76  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

how  many  general  managers,  division  superintendents,  and 
so  on,  were  graduates  of  the  instruction  car.  The  sum  of 
it  all  is  that  we  have  now  in  America  far  and  away  the 
best  braking  apparatus  and  systems  in  the  world;  but  the 
ideal  brake  has  not  even  yet  been  realized. 

In  closing  the  air-brake  chapter,  attention  is  asked  to  a 
fundamental  thing  which  will  be  suggested  in  various  ways 
before  we  have  done  with  this  book.  Westinghouse  was 
an  idealist.  Probably  he  would  have  resented  such  a  charge. 
He  would  have  said  he  was  a  practical  man.  Emerson  said 
that  he  "  found  that  genius  left  to  novices  the  gay  and  fan- 
tastic and  ostentatious  and  itself  pierced  directly  to  the 
simple  and  true;  that  it  was  simple  and  sincere.  ...  All 
great  actions  have  been  simple."  So  of  Westinghouse's 
idealism.  It  was  not  vague  or  fantastic  or  expressed  in 
sounding  phrases.  It  was  never  expressed  in  words  at  all; 
it  was  expressed  in  facts.  The  instruction  car  and  the  elab- 
orate system  of  investigating  accidents  of  which  we  have 
just  written  were  expressions  of  his  idea  of  what  folks  nowa- 
days call  "  service."  We  see  many  such  expressions  as  we  go 
through  his  life,  for  the  idea  was  in  his  nature.  He  never 
ceased  to  think  how  the  product  of  his  mind  and  the  prod- 
uct of  his  shops  could  be  of  more  service  to  his  customers, 
to  his  employees,  and  to  the  world.  To  that  end  he  lavished 
money  and  effort.  It  was  enlightened  selfishness,  if  you 
please,  but  that  seems  to  be  a  good  basis  for  working  ethics. 
At  any  rate  it  was  enlightened  and  we  call  it  applied  ideal- 
ism. 


CHAPTER  III 
FRICTION   DRAFT   GEAR 

A  GREAT  railroad  president,  an  engineer  by  profession 
and  a  man  of  imagination,  Mr.  Cassatt,  said  that  the  fric- 
tion draft  gear  was  a  more  important  invention  than  the 
air  brake,  and  Westinghouse  himself  sometimes  said  the 
same  thing.  How  many  readers  of  this  book  ever  heard  of 
the  friction  draft  gear,  or  have  a  definite  notion  of  its  con- 
struction and  its  functions  ?  Even  railroad  men  were  slow 
to  appreciate  it.  Other  inventors  and  manufacturers,  usu- 
ally quick  to  see,  and  diligent  to  seize  opportunities,  long 
failed  to  understand  that  a  new  field  for  profitable  enter- 
prise was  opened  by  this  invention,  although  Westinghouse 
advertised  it  widely  in  print  and  by  public  demonstrations. 

This  situation  came  about  partly  because  the  immediate 
need  of  the  friction  gear  at  the  time  of  its  invention  was 
not  urgent,  and  only  a  man  with  the  foresight  of  Westing- 
house  could  expect  the  future  need.  That  involved  fore- 
seeing something  of  the  mechanical  effects  of  the  air  brake 
in  handling  long  and  heavy  trains.  Such  foresight  required 
engineering  knowledge  and  insight,  and  it  required  also 
considerable  applied  imagination,  a  combination  not  very 
common.  The  need  of  the  air  brake  at  the  time  of  its  in- 
vention was  tolerably  obvious  to  all  men,  and  inventors 
were  busy  with  schemes  for  brakes,  continuous  through 
the  train,  and  controlled  by  the  engineer.  The  time  was 
ripe  for  a  revolution  in  brakes;  only  a  few  gifted  men  sus- 
pected that  a  revolution  in  draft  gear  was  impending  when 
Westinghouse  brought  out  the  friction  gear.  Perhaps  an- 

77 


78  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

other  reason  for  the  reluctance  to  use  the  new  device  was 
failure  to  grasp  the  consequences  to  flow  from  dissipating 
energy  by  friction  instead  of  storing  it  in  springs. 

It  is  much  too  soon  to  attempt  any  estimate  of  the  rela- 
tive effect  on  human  progress  of  those  two  inventions.  Few 
men  would  now  venture  to  say  that  the  friction  draft  gear 
is  nearly  as  important  as  the  air  brake,  but  it  was  a  more 
novel  conception.  It  introduced  into  railroad  practice  a 
new  principle;  the  air  brake  applied  new  means  to  an  old 
principle.  The  spring  gear  mitigates  by  spring  action  alone 
the  shocks  and  stresses  due  to  coupling,  starting,  running, 
and  stopping  trains.  The  energy  developed  is  stored  ready 
to  react  when  the  springs  are  released.  In  the  friction  gear 
the  energy  is  dissipated  as  heat  and  there  can  be  no  reac- 
tion. This  was  the  great  conception  of  the  invention.  The 
consequences  of  spring  reaction  depend  upon  the  quantity 
of  energy  stored  and  the  period  of  release.  If  that  quantity 
is  large  and  release  sudden  the  consequences  are  serious. 
If  the  recoil  of  a  great  gun  on  shipboard  were  taken  up  by 
springs  the  reaction  would  throw  the  gun  out  of  the  ship 
if  it  were  not  stopped  by  the  turret  walls.  At  best  it  would 
wreck  things.  In  the  stirring  old  frigate  actions  which  we 
read  about  wlien  we  were  boys,  the  recoil  of  the  guns  was 
managed  by  block  and  tackle.  The  gun  crews  manning 
the  leads  checked  the  recoil  and  ran  the  gun  forward  to 
firing  position  again.  In  the  course  of  time  hydraulic  recoil 
gear  came  in,  and  Westinghouse  designed  and  patented 
hydraulic  gear  for  railroad  use,  but  it  was  costly,  and  the 
mechanical  difficulties  of  fitting  it  to  cars  were  great,  if  not 
insuperable. 

As  cars  increased  in  weight  and  as  the  length  of  trains 
grew,  heavier  springs  were  used,  and  the  effects  of  their  re- 
action became  more  and  more  severe,  particularly  on  air- 


TESTS  OF  DRAFT  GEARS  79 

braked  trains.  They  increased  not  only  in  number  and  in 
degree  but  in  kind.  Things  happened  that  had  never  hap- 
pened before.  The  freight  engineer  discovered  that  with 
the  best  intentions  he  was  liable  to  break  his  train  in  two 
or  in  three  parts  without  actually  stopping  and  starting 
but  by  variations  of  speed  while  running,  and  the  old  hand 
knows  that  a  broken  freight  train  is  not  merely  inconve- 
nient, it  is  extremely  dangerous.  Attempts  to  make  matters 
better  by  still  further  increasing  the  capacity  of  the  springs 
made  them  worse.  An  excellent  demonstration  of  this  par- 
ticular way  of  breaking  a  train  in  two  was  made  in  a  series 
of  skilfully  conducted  tests  made  on  the  Southern  Pacific 
Railway  in  1908.  Incidentally  the  reader  may  note  that 
this  was  twenty  years  after  the  issue  of  the  friction-gear 
patent  and  twenty-one  years  after  the  most  important  single 
improvement  in  the  air  brake.  The  report  of  these  tests 
says:  "Probably  more  damage  to  equipment  and  lading 
has  been  caused  by  engineers  .  .  .  attempting  to  release 
brakes  on  freight  trains  .  .  .  after  slowing  down  than  from 
any  other  one  cause  over  which  operating  officials  have 
control."  To  ascertain  the  effects  of  different  gears  in  such 
cases  trains  were  run  at  twenty  miles  an  hour  and  slowed 
down  to  about  eight  miles;  then  brakes  were  released  and 
the  engine  throttle  opened  wide.  The  result  was  that  with 
the  friction  gear  "the  train  remained  intact  and  was  again 
accelerated  as  intended,  but  in  the  attempts  to  accomplish 
this  much-desired  result  with  the  spring  gear  the  train  was 
parted  sometimes  in  several  places  and  in  no  case  was  the 
train  again  put  under  way."  The  conclusion  was  that  "it 
is  absolutely  impossible  to  permit  engineers  to  make  a  prac- 
tice of  attempting  to  release  brakes  and  apply  steam  with 
long  freight  trains  under  way  which  are  equipped  with 
spring  gear  and  quick-action  brakes." 


80  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

Now  we  will  look  for  the  genesis  of  the  friction  gear.  In 
1878  certain  air-brake  trials  were  made  under  the  personal 
supervision  of  Westinghouse  in  England.  In  foreign  prac- 
tice there  is  much  greater  movement  between  the  cars  in 
a  train  than  in  the  United  States  because  of  a  quite  different 
arrangement  of  couplers  and  buffers.  The  train  used  in 
these  trials  consisted  of  a  locomotive  and  twenty  vehicles, 
the  buffer  springs  having  a  total  motion  of  from  eight  inches 
to  ten  inches,  to  each  car.  When  completely  compressed, 
they,  therefore,  reduced  the  length  of  the  train  by  about 
sixteen  feet.  The  trials  had  proceeded  successfully,  and  a 
final  stop  was  made  at  a  station  in  London  in  which  the 
brakes  were  applied  with  full  force  with  the  train  moving 
at  comparatively  low  speed,  and  the  buffer  springs  on  each 
vehicle  were  fully  compressed  when  the  train  came  to  a 
standstill.  As  the  passengers  were  alighting,  the  engineer 
released  the  air  from  the  brake  cylinders.  The  exhaust 
ports  were  unusually  large,  so  that  the  air  escaped  quickly, 
permitting  the  springs  to  react  suddenly,  causing  the  sepa- 
ration of  the  cars  to  the  extent  of  the  spring  motion,  and 
the  movement  was  so  violent  that  many  of  the  occupants 
of  the  train  were  thrown  down  and  some  slight  injuries 
resulted.  Westinghouse  said  that  the  buffers  required  a 
brake,  and  the  need  in  this  instance  was  supplied  by  ex- 
hausting the  air  from  the  brake  cylinder  slowly  enough 
to  permit  the  springs  to  react  gradually.  In  this  incident, 
Westinghouse  said,  was  the  germ  of  the  conception  of  the 
friction  draft-gear  mechanism,  for  it  clearly  demonstrated 
to  him  the  destructive  tendencies  of  unrestrained  reactive 
effect  of  springs  used  in  connection  with  draft  and  buffing 
devices.  The  idea  lay  dormant  until  the  necessity  for  some- 
thing of  the  kind  in  the  United  States  was  brought  forcibly 
to  the  attention  of  Westinghouse  in  connection  with  the 


BRAKES  AND  DRAFT  GEARS  81 

brake  experiments  at  Burlington  in  1887.  The  experimental 
train  used  at  Burlington  had  ordinary  draft  and  buffing 
springs  with  a  capacity  of  about  20,000  pounds,  and  in  ad- 
dition these  cars  were  also  fitted  with  auxiliary  buffer 
springs  of  about  the  same  strength,  placed  directly  above 
the  draft  mechanism,  and  contacting  with  a  horn  on  the 
coupler  head,  this  spring  acting  only  in  compression. 

As  long  as  the  serial  brake  operation  was  so  slow  that  the 
front  part  of  the  train  was  stopped  before  the  brakes  in  the 
rear  became  effective,  the  cars  were  pushed  together  by  the 
crowding  in  of  the  unbraked  rear  portion  of  the  train,  and 
there  was  no  dangerous  reactive  effect  of  the  draft  springs. 
When,  however,  the  rapidity  of  serial  brake  action  had  been 
increased  so  that  the  last  brake  was  fully  applied  while  the 
train  was  still  in  motion,  the  reaction  of  the  springs  became 
effective,  and  at  speeds  above  thirty  miles  an  hour  it  was 
impossible  to  make  an  emergency  stop  without  parting  the 
train  by  the  braking  of  the  coupler  mechanisms.  The  part- 
ing usually  occurred  about  one-third  of  the  length  of  the 
train  from  the  locomotive.  An  excellent  opportunity  for 
observation  repeated  many  times  showed  quite  clearly  this 
effect  of  spring  reaction.  As  stated  before,  the  reactive 
effect  in  the  particular  train  in  question  was  about  double 
that  ordinarily  present,  due  to  the  use  of  the  auxiliary  buf- 
fer spring,  which  it  was  expected  would  in  some  measure 
reduce  buffing  shocks  caused  by  serial  brake  operation.  It 
was  without  value  for  its  intended  purpose  and  proved  a 
positive  disadvantage  because  of  its  reactive  effect,  and 
when  it  was  removed  coupler  breakages  ceased.  The  ex- 
periment, however,  served  an  excellent  purpose  in  demon- 
strating the  objectionable  effect  of  the  reactive  effort  of 
high  spring  resistance. 

The  subject  becomes  somewhat  complex,  as  it  deals  with 


82  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

long  and  heavy  trains  and  not  witji  short  ones  or  individual 
cars,  and  because  it  is  also  connected  with  the  serial  opera- 
tion of  brakes.  If  all  cars  were  of  the  same  weight,  equally 
loaded  and  fitted  with  brakes  that  applied  simultaneously 
with  uniform  force,  there  would  be  no  coupler  strains  tend- 
ing to  cause  train  partings,  as  there  would  be  uniform  speed 
deceleration  of  every  portion  of  the  train.  The  objection- 
able reactive  effect  only  occurs  when  it  becomes  sufficiently 
cumulative,  as  in  a  long  train,  and  then  mainly  in  connec- 
tion with  brake  applications;  for  it  is  the  serial  application 
of  brakes  that  causes  the  springs  to  be  compressed  one  by 
one,  thereby  putting  them  in  a  state  to  react  together  and 
with  destructive  effect. 

The  term  "long  trains"  is  necessarily  inexact,  for  the 
variation  in  weight  of  individual  cars  and  of  their  loading 
enters  into  the  problem;  but  the  invention  of  the  friction 
draft  gear  was  based  upon  the  observed  performance  of  a 
fifty-car  train  in  1887,  and  at  the  same  time  it  was  demon- 
strated that  with  a  train  of  half  the  length  the  reactive 
spring  effect  was  practically  negligible.  The  draft  devices 
then  in  use  were  strong  enough  to  absorb  without  breaking 
the  strains  and  stresses  produced  by  the  movement  and 
stopping  of  twenty-five-car  trains. 

Some  of  the  serious  elements  in  the  cost  of  railroad  opera- 
tion are  repairs  to  draw  gear  and  underframes,  and  damage 
to  lading  due  to  energy  which  ought  to  be  dissipated  harm- 
lessly instead  of  being  stored  to  do  mischief.  Understand- 
ing all  this  involves  a  pretty  complicated  group  of  ideas 
not  so  familiar  then  as  they  are  now.  It  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  in  1887  trains  of  fifty  cars  were  comparatively 
rare,  and  the  average  number  of  cars  per  train  did  not  then 
exceed  thirty.  Furthermore,  they  were  of  relatively  low 
capacity  and  of  wooden  construction,  as  the  steel  car  had 


FIRST  FRICTION  DRAFT  GEAR  83 

not  yet  appeared.  The  tendency  toward  longer  trains  was, 
however,  manifested  at  the  date  of  the  Burlington  trials, 
and  its  effect  began  to  appear  in  heavy  draft-gear  repairs 
and  frequent  train  partings.  Perhaps  in  no  other  instance 
was  the  capacity  of  Westinghouse  for  a  long-range  vision 
better  exemplified  than  in  the  one  in  which  he  foresaw  the 
great  increase  in  train  lengths  and  weights,  and  their  load- 
ing, and  what  was  demanded  in  improved  draft  appliances 
to  make  this  controlling  factor  of  car  construction  adequate 
for  the  purpose  it  serves.  He  clearly  foresaw  increased 
stresses  in  the  draft  appliances,  and  as  clearly  identified 
the  fact  that  stronger  springs  intended  to  meet  the  require- 
ments would  augment  reactive  effect  which  had  already 
been  demonstrated  to  be  so  great  as  to  cause  frequent  train 
partings  under  normal  conditions  of  operation.  He,  there- 
fore, invented  and  devised  a  mechanism  which  included  a 
high  frictional  resistance  to  movement,  combined  with  a 
moderate  spring  resistance.  The  frictional  resistance  was 
effective  in  both  forward  and  backward  motion,  and  en- 
tirely counteracted  the  reactive  effect  of  the  spring.  The 
chief  function  of  the  spring  was  to  create  frictional  contact 
of  the  moving  parts  of  the  device  and  restore  them  to  nor- 
mal position  when  the  stresses  of  operation  were  removed. 
So  certain  was  Westinghouse  of  his  inferences  and  assump- 
tions that  he  began  without  delay  to  develop  various  forms 
of  the  basic  idea  and  submit  them  to  practical  tests. 

His  first  friction  draft-gear  patent  was  issued  in  1888, 
and  it  disclosed  the  broad  principles  upon  which  all  sub- 
sequent friction  gears  have  been  designed.  The  structure 
shown  and  described  in  the  patent  was  built,  and  it  was 
tested  on  a  train  of  thirty  cars  in  February  1890.  This 
train  was  in  charge  of  the  late  R.  H.  Soule,  a  distinguished 
railroad  officer  who  had  entered  the  service  of  Westing- 


84  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

house  to  develop  the  first  friction  gear,  and  who  was  an 
excellent  mechanical  engineer.  The  apparatus  was  shown 
in  several  important  railway  centers  and  a  few  of  the  de- 
vices were  put  in  general  service,  but  the  construction  was 
such  that  it  was  unfavorably  affected  by  an  accumulation 
of  rust,  so  that  it  did  not  prove  entirely  successful.  A 
further  study  of  the  problem  resulted  in  a  change  of  form 
that  remedied  the  defects  in  the  first  type,  and  after  three 
years  of  development  and  experimental  work  a  train  of 
forty-five  cars  in  the  coke  traffic  was  placed  at  the  disposal 
of  Westinghouse  by  the  H.  C.  Frick  Coke  Company,  and 
these  cars  were  fitted  with  the  new  device  and  kept  together 
in  one  train.  The  train  was  put  in  service  between  the  Con- 
nellsville  coke  region  and  the  Carnegie  Works  at  Home- 
stead and  was  under  daily  observation,  and  some  slight 
changes  were  developed  by  use  and  made.  It  was  operated 
many  months  under  extreme  conditions  as  to  load  and 
speed,  and  therefore  furnished  the  best  possible  opportunity 
to  demonstrate  the  value  of  the  invention  in  its  application 
to  freight  equipment,  proving,  as  it  did,  that  the  principles 
involved  in  its  construction  were  sound,  and  that  the  pur- 
pose for  which  it  was  designed  had  been  attained.  Before 
its  use  it  needed  great  skill  and  care  on  the  part  of  the  en- 
gineer to  avoid  train  partings  and  rear-end  shocks  that 
were  of  destructive  intensity.  When  the  friction  gear  was 
attached  it  was  impossible  to  so  operate  the  locomotive  as 
to  cause  serious  shocks  or  strains. 

So  far  we  have  considered  the  functions  of  the  draft  gear 
in  taking  care  of  the  stresses  set  up  in  stopping,  as  observed, 
for  example,  at  the  Burlington  brake  trials,  and  in  taking 
care  of  the  stresses  set  up  in  a  running  train  by  changes  in 
speed,  as  in  the  Southern  Pacific  tests.  But  it  performs 
an  important  duty  in  starting  trains  also.  To  start  a  long 


STARTING  A  TRAIN  85 

and  heavy  train  free  slack  is  necessary.  If  such  a  train 
were  tight-coupled,  with  no  play  between  the  cars,  the  loco- 
motive would  simply  spin  its  drivers  and  the  train  would 
stand  still.  Actually  it  is  started  serially,  one  car  at  a  tune, 
and  the  momentum  of  each  moving  car  helps  to  start  the 
car  next  behind.  This  necessary  slack  is  provided  in  the 
draft  gear.  In  the  spring  gear  it  is  spring  slack,  and  the 
effects  of  spring  reaction  are  developed  in  starting  trains 
as  well  as  in  stopping  them.  The  friction  gear  provides 
the  necessary  starting  slack  without  reaction.  It  has  been 
found  in  practice  that  a  train  fitted  with  the  friction  gear 
can  get  up  to  twenty  miles  an  hour  by  the  time  that  a  similar 
train  fitted  with  the  ordinary  spring  draft  gear  can  be  en- 
tirely put  in  motion.  This  is  due  to  the  greater  care  re- 
quired to  start  a  train  fitted  with  the  ordinary  gear,  to  avoid 
the  destructive  reactions  from  stresses  in  excess  of  the  cush- 
ioning capacity  of  the  spring  gear.  It  is  probable  that  the 
greatest  commercial  value  of  the  friction  gear  is  found  in 
the  reduction  of  strains  of  extension  to  a  point  within  the 
strength  of  the  car  couplings,  strange  as  that  may  seem  to 
one  accustomed  to  think  of  it  only  as  a  buffer. 

The  first  commercial  application  of  the  draft  gear  was  to 
1000  steel  cars  on  the  Bessemer  &  Lake  Erie  Railroad, 
exactly  nine  years  from  the  date  of  the  original  invention. 
This  was  almost  immediately  followed  by  its  adoption  as 
standard  by  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  Railroad.  A  dozen  years 
after  the  invention  of  the  air  brake  Westinghouse  was  rich 
and  famous.  It  took  nine  years  or  more  to  put  this  other 
brilliant  invention  in  such  a  place  commercially  that  the 
manufacturers  began  to  get  a  reasonable  return  on  the  costs 
of  development  and  promotion.  The  struggle  for  the  recog- 
nition of  the  principle  is  now  over.  In  the  four  years  end- 
ing in  the  spring  of  1920  some  90  per  cent  of  all  freight 


86  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

cars  built  were  fitted  with  the  friction  gear,  and  the  West- 
inghouse  Air  Brake  Company  had  shipped  over  a  million 
friction  gears. 

Regarded  as  an  example  of  mechanical  design  the  fric- 
tion draft  gear  in  the  form  in  which  Westinghouse  left  it 
is  one  of  the  most  ingenious  of  his  structures,  and  those 
who  have  looked  over  his  many  hundreds  of  patents  will 
agree  that  this  is  saying  a  great  deal.  When  we  consider 
this;  when  we  consider  that  the  parting  of  trains  has  long 
been  a  fruitful  cause  of  bad  accidents;  when  we  consider 
the  great  and  constant  cost,  directly  and  indirectly,  of  main- 
taining draw  gear  and  underframes,  and  finally  when  we 
consider  the  new  and  fundamental  conception,  we  cannot 
wonder  that  Westinghouse  sometimes  said  and  that  Mr. 
Cassatt  said  that  the  friction  draft  gear  was  a  more  im- 
portant invention  than  the  air  brake.  A  forgotten"  phi- 
losopher said  that  the  main  obstacles  to  human  progress 
are  friction,  gravity,  and  natural  depravity.  Obviously 
he  was  not  an  engineer;  perhaps  that  is  why  he  is  forgotten. 


CHAPTER  IV 
A  GENERAL  SKETCH  OF  ELECTRIC  ACTIVITIES 

THE  air  brake  and  its  allies  and  dependencies  have  been 
considered.  We  shall  now  take  up  Westinghouse's  elec- 
trical activities  in  a  general  way.  Later  chapters  will  show 
in  more  detail  how  they  developed  in  the  gradual  building 
up  of  a  new  art. 

The  general  development  of  the  electric  art  came  on  in 
great  waves;  first  arc  lighting,  next  incandescent  lighting, 
then  the  trolley  and  the  single-phase  alternating  current 
at  about  the  same  period,  and  finally  polyphase  alternating 
current  and  transmission  of  power.  Of  all  these  stages 
Westinghouse  was  conscious;  in  all  of  them  he  had  a  part; 
in  one  of  them,  the  most  important,  he  took  a  commanding 
place.  The  most  important  stage  was  the  use  of  alternating 
current.  This  story  will  be  told  in  detail  later.  Let  us  con- 
sider here  in  a  general  way  the  relations  of  Westinghouse 
to  the  new  art  of  harnessing  electricity  for  the  use  and  con- 
venience of  man. 

But  first  it  may  not  be  out  of  the  way  to  glance  at  a  few 
very  elementary  things.  Much  will  be  said  about  direct 
current  and  alternating  current,  and  it  will  be  found  that 
Westinghouse's  greatest  electrical  achievement  was  to  hast- 
en the  use  of  the  alternating  current,  a  long  step  in  human 
progress. 

"Current"  is  a  conventional  and  arbitrary  term,  accepted 
years  ago,  to  express  the  passing  of  electric  energy  from 
one  place  to  another.  It  is  said  to  "flow"  through,  or  on, 

87 


88  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

a  conductor.  Just  how  fast  it  flows  nobody  seems  to  know, 
but  the  speed  varies  with  the  kind  of  conductor.  So  far 
as  anybody  knows  now,  light  is  the  fastest  thing  in  our  part 
of  the  universe,  at  say  186,000  miles  a  second,  and  elec- 
tricity comes  next.  For  working  purposes  we  may  take 
the  speed  of  the  electric  transmission  on  a  good  copper  con- 
ductor at  100,000  miles  a  second,  although  very  much 
greater  velocities  have  been  observed  in  experiments.  In 
longitude  work  the  time  of  transmission  of  electric  signals 
must  be  considered,  but  in  transmission  of  power  by  elec- 
tricity time  does  not  enter.  This  matter  of  the  speed  of 
the  electric  impulse  will  be  interesting  when  we  take  up  the 
balancing  of  current  in  certain  heavy  railroad  work  in  a 
later  chapter. 

Direct  current  flows  always  in  one  direction.  The  flow 
of  alternating  current  is  periodically  reversed  in  direction. 
In  much  of  the  early  practice  these  reversals,  "  alternations," 
took  place  16,000  times  a  minute.  Lower  frequencies  are 
now  standard. 

There  is  no  essential  difference  in  the  effects  produced 
by  these  two  different  kinds  of  current  in  work  done.  There 
are  some  uses  to  which  one  or  the  other  is  specially  appli- 
cable; but  generally  speaking,  when  the  current  reaches 
the  place  where  the  work  is  to  be  done,  by  a  motor  or  by 
a  lamp,  one  kind  of  current  when  suitably  applied  is  about 
as  effective  as  the  other.  The  essential  differences  are  in 
generation  and  transmission,  in  manufacturing  the  current 
and  taking  it  to  the  work,  and  in  the  means  of  utilization. 
These  differences  have  brought  about  the  fact  that  ninety- 
five  per  cent  of  the  electric  energy  generated  and  trans- 
mitted is  by  alternating  current.  It  is  to  the  everlasting 
glory  of  George  Westinghouse  that  he  saw  the  meaning  of 
these  differences  before  it  was  seen  in  a  big  way  by  any 


DIRECT  AND  ALTERNATING  CURRENT  89 

other  man  who  combined  in  himself  the  qualities  and  the 
capacities  to  make  use  of  them.  This  was  so  true  that  in 
the  middle  eighties  alternating  current  was  spoken  of  in  the 
United  States  amongst  students  and  experimenters  as  the 
"Westinghouse  current."  Few  others  than  students  and 
experimenters  spoke  of  it  at  all. 

We  shall  now  try  to  state  very  simply  what  those  essen- 
tial differences  are.  An  elementary  fact  about  transmission 
is  that  the  quantity  of  current  passed  economically  over  a 
conductor  at  a  fixed  pressure,  or  voltage,  depends  on  the 
size  of  the  conductor,  and  conversely  if  the  size  of  the  con- 
ductor is  fixed  the  power  passed  economically  can  be  in- 
creased by  raising  the  voltage.  If  the  power  conveyed  is 
great  and  the  voltage  is  low,  the  conductor  must  be  large. 
If  the  distance  to  be  covered  is  considerable  the  cost  of  the 
conductors  becomes  prohibitive.  This  is  exactly  the  situa- 
tion that  had  come  about  when  Westinghouse  took  up  al- 
ternating current.  Direct  current  had  to  be  conveyed  at 
low  voltage,  because  it  had  to  be  used  at  comparatively 
low  voltage,  and  it  does  not  lend  itself  to  ready  reduction 
from  high  transmission  voltage  to  low  working  voltage. 
Therefore,  the  cost  of  copper  conductors  set  a  narrow  limit 
to  the  quantity  of  power  conveyed  and  the  distances.  Al- 
ternating current  can  be  readily  transformed  from  high 
transmission  voltage  to  low  working  voltage  with  but  little 
loss  of  energy  in  the  process.  Therefore,  a  larger  amount 
of  power  can  be  carried  at  high  voltage  on  a  small  conduc- 
tor and  stepped  down  to  low  voltage  at  the  place  of  use. 
Furthermore,  alternating  current  can  be  converted  into 
direct  current  at  the  place  of  use  with  little  loss. 

The  other  important  difference  mentioned  above  is  in 
generation.  The  direct-current  generator  does  not  lend 
itself  to  very  large  capacities,  relatively,  nor  is  it  well 


90  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

adapted  to  the  high  speed  of  the  steam  turbine.  Alternat- 
ing-current turbo-generators,  driven  by  steam  or  water, 
are  now  built  up  to  60,000  horsepower  or  more.  This  leads 
to  economy  in  the  manufacture  of  power. 

An  old  Westinghouse  engineer  writes:  "The  greatest 
possibilities  of  alternating  current  seemed  to  lie  in  its  flexibil- 
ity of  voltage  transformation.  This  one  feature  alone  al- 
ways impressed  Mr.  Westinghouse  as  important  enough 
eventually  to  make  the  alternating  system  the  dominating 
one.  However,  it  is  doubtful  whether  even  his  great  imag- 
ination foresaw  the  complete  extent  to  which  the  alternat- 
ing-current system  actually  would  supersede  all  others." 

So  much  for  the  elementary  things;  now  we  may  pro- 
ceed with  the  story  of  George  Westinghouse. 

In  the  field  of  electricity  he  was  not  an  inventor  of  funda- 
mentals. He  invented  many  useful  details,  but  his  great 
work  was  in  stimulating,  combining,  and  directing  the  work 
of  other  men.  When  he  entered  the  field  he  was  already 
a  world  figure;  a  loadstone  attracting  from  all  directions. 
No  other  man  combined  the  resourcefulness,  the  contact 
with  scientists,  the  ardor  for  engineering  development,  the 
manufacturing  plants,  the  organization  of  men  in  many 
groups,  the  vision,  the  optimism,  the  courage,  and  the  will 
to  bring  things  to  pass.  Known  the  world  over,  he  was 
the  receptacle  of  the  thoughts  and  ideas  of  scientists  and 
inventors  everywhere.  He  was  the  captain  of  them  all, 
the  man  who  received  and  coordinated  and  executed. 

A  mind  so  active  and  inquiring  as  that  of  George  West- 
inghouse could  not  fail  to  be  interested  in  electricity.  As 
a  boy  in  his  father's  shop  he  amused  himself  taking  sparks 
from  a  belt  and  charging  a  Leyden  jar;  but  for  many  years 
the  incentives  and  the  opportunities  before  him  were  much 
more  mechanical  than  electrical.  There  were  useful  things 


BEGINS  HIS  ELECTRIC  WORK  91 

to  be  done  with  mechanisms  in  endless  variety,  while  the 
only  important  use  of  electricity  was  in  telegraphy.  As 
the  years  went  on,  Westinghouse  gave  some  thought  to  the 
possible  use  of  electricity  in  railroad  braking.  Later  he 
took  out  patents  for  an  automatic  telephone  exchange,  dis- 
closing principles  suggestive  of  some  features  of  modern 
practice.  When  he  took  up  railroad  signalling  and  inter- 
locking he  soon  began  to  use  electric  circuits  for  control. 
Meanwhile  electric  lighting  was  developing  slowly;  the 
distribution  of  power  by  electricity  was  but  a  dream  of  a 
few  speculative  philosophers.  All  effectual  uses  of  elec- 
tricity in  the  arts  were  by  direct  current;  the  alternating 
current  as  a  useful  form  of  electricity  was  not  known.  In 
the  early  eighties  the  few  important  uses  of  electricity  other 
than  in  telegraphy  were  for  street-lighting  by  arc-lamps 
and  for  indoor  lighting  by  incandescent  lamps.  There  were 
a  few  private  lighting  plants  in  hotels  and  other  large  build- 
ings, and  in  1882  central  stations  for  commercial  lighting 
current  began  operation,  but  it  was  soon  seen  that  the  cost 
of  copper  wire  for  transmission  would  be  prohibitive  for 
distances  more  than  a  few  hundred  yards. 

Late  in  1883  Westinghouse  began  to  think  somewhat 
seriously  about  direct-current  lighting.  He  began  to  gather 
about  him  a  staff,  and  soon  had  several  men  busy  in  study 
of  methods  and  in  development  of  details;  but  not  until 
he  had  his  vision  of  the  possibilities  of  the  alternating  cur- 
rent was  his  interest  thoroughly  aroused.  He  had  but  just 
started  on  his  way  to  Damascus.  The  road  was  somewhat 
long  and  the  vision  did  not  come  so  abruptly  as  it  came  to 
Saul. 

Although  the  arc  lamp  came  into  commercial  use  earlier 
than  the  incandescent  lamp,  Westinghouse  took  up  incan- 
descent lighting  first.  A  difficulty  found  early  hi  that  art 


92  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

was  automatic  regulation  of  dynamo  voltage  to  conform 
to  varying  loads  on  the  lighting  circuit.  In  1881  Westing- 
house  had  taken  out  a  patent  for  automatically  regulating 
either  the  engine  or  the  dynamo  in  response  to  changes  in 
load.  The  pursuit  of  this  object  soon  brought  about  rela- 
tions with  William  Stanley,  who  later  became  a  famous  fig- 
ure in  electric  development.  Mr.  H.  H.  Westinghouse,  a 
younger  brother,  had  invented  a  high-speed  engine  and 
formed  the  Westinghouse  Machine  Company  to  make  it. 
This  engine  had  inherent  self-regulating  capabilities,  and 
negotiations  were  begun  with  the  Brush  Electric  Company 
looking  to  its  use  with  the  Brush  dynamos.  Brush  was  an 
able  and  enterprising  pioneer  in  electric  lighting.  While 
negotiations  were  going  on,  H.  H.  Westinghouse  happened 
to  meet  Stanley,  then  a  young  and  unknown  electrical 
engineer,  and  learned  that  he  had  invented  a  self-regulat- 
ing dynamo.  Stanley  with  E.  P.  Thomson  had  also  in- 
vented an  incandescent  lamp  with  a  filament  of  carbonized 
silk.  The  immediate  result  of  this  accidental  meeting  was 
that  Stanley  went  to  Pittsburgh,  in  the  employ  of  Westing- 
house,  to  manufacture  his  dynamo  and  lamp  and  to  de- 
velop a  complete  electric-lighting  system,  and  Westinghouse 
entered  upon  a  careful  study  of  the  art.  This  happened  in 
the  first  months  of  1884,  just  when  he  was  starting  his 
natural-gas  company  and  thus  creating  another  new  art,  in 
which  he  brought  out  thirty-six  patents  in  two  years.  At 
the  same  time  he  was  active  also  in  the  affairs  of  his  new 
company  which  was  introducing  railway  signalling  and  in- 
terlocking. 

To  appreciate  the  task  before  Westinghouse  when  he 
considered  taking  up  the  electrical-manufacturing  busi- 
ness, it  will  be  helpful  to  outline  briefly  the  condition  of 
the  business  as  it  then  existed. 


THE  LIGHTING  SITUATION  93 

The  exploitation  of  direct-current  arc  and  incandescent 
lighting  had  gained  considerable  headway  in  the  early 
eighties.  The  more  prominent  producers  of  such  apparatus 
were  the  Brush  Electric  Light  Company,  the  Swan  Incan- 
descent Light  Company,  the  Consolidated  Electric  Com- 
pany, the  Edison  Electric  Lighting  Company,  the  United 
States  Electric  Lighting  Company,  and  the  Thomson- 
Houston  Electric  Company.  Each  of  these  companies 
owned  numerous  patents  relating  to  the  electrical  art.  It 
thus  became  necessary  for  Westinghouse  to  learn  whether 
the  Stanley  silk-filament  lamp  and  the  Stanley  self-regulat- 
ing direct-current  dynamo  would  involve  the  use  of  ad- 
versely held  patents. 

Until  the  metal-filament  lamp  was  developed,  the  essen- 
tial of  the  universal  incandescent  lamp  was  the  arch-shaped 
illuminant  of  carbonized  organic  material.  For  many  years 
vain  attempts  had  been  made  to  produce  an  incandescent 
lamp  having  as  an  illuminant  a  metal  of  high  melting  point, 
such  as  platinum.  In  1878  Sawyer  and  Man  succeeded  in 
carbonizing  paper  and  other  fibrous  materials  in  the  form 
of  an  arch.  They  applied  for  a  patent  thereon  in  1880. 
After  extended  Patent  Office  interference  proceedings  with 
an  application  of  Edison,  the  patent  was  granted  in  1885 
by  assignment  from  Sawyer  and  Man  to  the  Electro-Dy- 
namic Company.  That  company,  incorporated  in  1878,  was 
the  earliest  company  organized  hi  this  country  for  carry- 
ing on  a  general  system  of  incandescent  electric  lighting. 
In  1881  its  patents  and  assets  were  sold  to  the  Eastern  Elec- 
tric Company,  which,  in  turn,  in  1882  sold  them  to  the 
Consolidated  Company.  By  the  purchase  of  this  company 
the  Westinghouse  Electric  Company  became  the  legitimate 
successor  of  the  first  incandescent-lighting  company. 

Meanwhile,  Edison,  although  he  was  ultimately  defeated 


94  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

in  his  contest  in  the  Patent  Office  with  Sawyer  and  Han 
upon  the  filament,  secured  a  patent  in  1880  upon  a  carbon 
filament  in  an  exhausted  container  made  entirely  of  glass. 
Sawyer  and  Man  had  shown  in  their  application  a  con- 
tainer in  the  form  of  a  tube  closed  by  a  stopper,  sealed  into 
the  end.  This  "stopper  lamp"  became  famous  in  its  rela- 
tion to  the  lighting  of  the  Columbian  Exposition  in  1893. 
Of  that  something  will  be  said  when  we  come  to  treat  par- 
ticularly of  the  Exposition.  Two  other  inventions  of  mo- 
ment should  be  here  mentioned,  one  patented  by  Sawyer 
and  Man  in  1879  for  treating  carbon  conductors  in  an  at- 
mosphere of  hydrocarbon,  and  the  other  an  invention  of 
Hiram  S.  Maxim  for  making  a  filament  out  of  carbonized 
cellulose.  These  and  other  adversely  held  inventions  cast 
doubt  on  the  expediency  of  Westinghouse  entering  the  in- 
candescent-lamp field.  We  shall  hear  more  of  this  when  we 
come  to  the  story  of  the  Chicago  World's  Fair. 

The  status  of  the  generator  was  less  complicated,  al- 
though a  patent  issued  to  Weston  in  1883,  and  assigned 
to  the  United  States  Company,  upon  a  self-regulating 
dynamo,  appears  to  have  caused  Westinghouse  to  doubt 
the  propriety  of  manufacturing  the  Stanley  dynamo. 
Numerous  other  patents  on  the  direct-current  generator  and 
systems  of  distribution  were  also  held  by  the  United  States 
and  other  companies. 

Through  Franklin  L.  Pope,  an  eminent  electrical  patent 
expert,  and  Thomas  B.  Kerr,  one  of  his  patent  lawyers, 
Westinghouse  was  advised  as  to  the  probable  bearing  which 
these  various  patents  might  have  upon  his  operations,  and 
particularly  upon  the  Stanley  incandescent  lamp  and 
dynamo.  The  results  of  these  investigations  apparently 
caused  Westinghouse  to  hestitate  at  the  tune,  but  in  March, 
1885,  he,  with  some  apparent  reluctance,  consented  to  the 


EARLY  LIGHTING  INSTALLATIONS  95 

organization  of  a  company  to  take  over  the  business  pre- 
viously carried  on  by  Westinghouse  as  a  personal  under- 
taking at  a  cost  of  about  $150,000.  Westinghouse  pro- 
posed that  the  company  if  formed  should  be  known  as  the 
Stanley  Electric  Company.  This  plan,  however,  was  not 
then  carried  into  effect,  and  Westinghouse  showed  no  great 
enthusiasm  for  electric  ventures  until  the  alternating  sys- 
tem had  made  its  strong  appeal  to  him. 

But  direct-current  development  was  by  no  means  aban- 
doned. Research  work,  design,  and  experiment  went  on, 
and  early  in  1886  a  Westinghouse  direct-current  incandes- 
cent-lighting plant  was  installed  in  the  Windsor  Hotel  in 
New  York.  About  the  same  time  a  similar  plant  was  placed 
in  the  Monongahela  Hotel  in  Pittsburgh.  The  first  cen- 
tral-station Westinghouse  equipment  was  at  Trenton, 
N.  J.,  the  installation  of  which  was  begun  in  the  latter  part 
of  May  1886,  by  the  construction  firm  of  Westinghouse, 
Church,  Kerr  &  Company,  and  practically  completed  late 
in  August  of  that  year.  The  generating  plant  consisted  of 
six  100-volt,  300-light,  direct-current,  shunt-wound  dyna- 
mos of  the  Siemens  type.  Similar  direct-current  plants 
were  soon  after  placed  in  Plainfield,  N.  J.,  and  in  Schenec- 
tady,  N.  Y.,  the  present  home  of  the  General  Electric  Com- 
pany, and  installation  in  many  other  cities  followed.  In 
August  1889,  more  than  350,000  incandescent  lamps  were 
in  service  in  connection  with  the  central-station  plants  in- 
stalled with  apparatus  produced  by  the  Westinghouse  Elec- 
tric Company  requiring  about  40,000  horsepower.  Of 
these  lamps  a  large  number,  perhaps  the  greater  number, 
were  alternating  current. 

The  beginning  of  those  activities  of  Westinghouse  in 
alternating-current  development,  which  were  to  revolution- 
ize the  electric  art,  was  late  in  1886;  but  we  will  go  on  now 


96  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

with  some  further  details  and  return  shortly  to  the  alternat- 
ing current. 

In  course  of  time  Westinghouse  decided  to  take  up  arc 
lighting,  and  in  November  1888  he  bought  the  entire  cap- 
ital stock  of  the  Waterhouse  Electric  and  Manufacturing 
Company.  This  was  more  than  ten  years  after  the  instal- 
lation of  arc  lights  in  the  Place  de  1'Opera  in  Paris,  and 
the  people  of  many  cities,  in  many  lands,  had  become  fa- 
miliar with  the  dazzling  glare  of  enormous  lamps.  The 
Waterhouse  system,  direct  current,  was  supposed  to  be 
well  developed  and  the  company  had  established  a  con- 
siderable business.  It  gradually  appeared  that  a  system 
that  would  do  pretty  well  on  a  small  scale  was  not  neces- 
sarily fit  for  large-scale  operation.  The  Waterhouse  ap- 
paratus when  hi  service  demanded  too  much  personal  at- 
tention from  experts.  After  considerable  redesign  the 
system  was  dropped. 

Meanwhile,  Stanley,  a  versatile  and  clever  man,  thought 
that  he  had  discovered  a  principle  in  alternator  design  that 
might  be  the  basis  of  a  system  of  arc  lighting  by  alternat- 
ing current.  Westinghouse  was  much  taken  by  some  fea- 
tures of  this  new  system,  which  were  indeed  plausible,  and 
the  company  spent  a  great  deal  of  money  developing  it 
and  pushing  it  commercially.  Many  difficulties  developed. 
One  of  these,  and  a  serious  one,  was  the  fact  that  the  alter- 
nating-current arc  lamp  of  those  days  was  inferior  to  the 
direct-current  lamp.  The  light  of  the  alternating-current 
arc  lamp  was  from  the  incandescent  tips  of  the  carbons. 
In  the  direct-current  arc  lamp  of  those  days  much  of  the 
light  was  from  a  glowing  crater  formed  in  the  upper  carbon. 
From  this  crater  a  big  part  of  the  total  light  developed  by 
the  arc  was  projected  downward.  In  the  alternating-cur- 
rent lamp  of  the  time  craters  formed  in  both  carbons,  and 


CHANGES  IN  LIGHTING  97 

the  light  from  the  lower  carbon  was  projected  upward  and 
much  of  the  total  light  was  wasted.  This  fundamental 
difficulty  was  corrected  in  later  years  by  radically  different 
lamps.  Furthermore,  the  noise  of  the  early  alternating- 
current  arc  lamp  was  objectionable. 

For  these  reasons  this  Stanley  system  of  alternating  arc 
lighting  was  given  up,  and  effort  reverted  to  direct  current. 
But  there  were  strong  engineering  reasons  pointing  to  the 
alternating-current  system,  particularly  the  possibility  of 
using  larger  generating  units  in  central  stations.  Slowly 
came  radical  changes  in  lamps.  The  flaming  arc  lamp  came 
in;  the  arc  flame  itself  was  used  as  the  source  of  light  in- 
stead of  the  craters.  The  energy  expended  in  the  arc 
became  the  important  thing;  not  the  kind  of  current.  De- 
tail improvements  went  on  in  the  lamp  itself  and  in  regu- 
lation until  generation  for  direct-current  arc  systems  al- 
most disappeared  from  the  market  so  far  as  new  apparatus 
was  concerned.  This  must  have  been  a  pleasing  outcome 
for  Westinghouse,  who  never  let  the  alternating-current 
idea  sleep. 

On  the  whole,  the  Westinghouse  Company  did  a  good 
deal  for  arc  lighting  in  original  research,  in  developing  lamps 
and  other  apparatus,  and  in  commercial  effort;  but  arc 
lighting  never  became  either  a  specialty  with  the  company 
or  a  very  important  part  of  the  business.  In  the  nature  of 
things,  this  was  logical,  for  it  was  obvious  almost  from  the 
start  that  immensely  the  greater  part  of  the  artificial  light- 
ing of  the  world  must  be  by  something  capable  of  indefinite 
subdivision  into  small  units,  and  to  this  the  incandescent 
lamp  lent  itself  admirably.  We  shall  see  later  that  West- 
inghouse gave  much  attention  to  the  development  of  vari- 
ous forms  of  glow  lamps. 

With  the  coming  of  the  gas-filled  or  nitrogen  lamp  the 


98  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

arc  lamp  is  gradually  disappearing  from  the  active  field. 
Unless  something  new  and  surprising  develops,  the  arc 
lamp  evidently  is  doomed.  For  the  same  energy  expended, 
the  nitrogen  lamp  probably  gives  but  little  more  light,  if 
any,  than  the  arc  lamp,  but,  like  all  incandescent  lamps, 
it  requires  practically  no  attendance  except  for  replace- 
ment in  case  of  breakage.  It  can  operate  directly  from  the 
alternating-current  system,  with  regulators  for  constant 
current.  Therefore,  it  may  be  said  that  lighting  by  arc 
lamps,  practically  the  earliest  branch  of  the  electric-light- 
ing business,  has  now  been  superseded  by  incandescent 
lamps. 

The  Westinghouse  Electric  Company  went  steadily  for- 
ward in  developing  and  producing  machinery  and  appara- 
tus for  lighting,  and  in  a  few  years  railway  work  began  to 
look  important.  As  time  went  on  the  Company  carried  out 
an  enormous  development,  and  it  has  brought  about  some 
of  the  greatest  advances  in  the  direct-current  field.  Par- 
ticulars of  some  of  these  will  be  told  when  we  come  to  speak 
of  the  Company's  activities  in  transportation. 

In  1890  the  Company  built  a  250-horsepower  direct- 
current  generator  for  railway  service.  Possible  customers 
came  hundreds  of  miles  to  see  one  of  the  largest  machines 
in  the  world.  There  was  some  discussion  as  to  whether  a 
larger  generator  would  ever  be  built.  Certain  things  hap- 
pened in  the  tests  which  the  visitors  did  not  see.  For  in- 
stance, parts  of  the  armature  winding  shifted  on  the  smooth, 
cylindrical  core  as  much  as  an  inch.  The  armature  was 
tinkered  up,  the  machine  was  shipped,  and  gave  satisfac- 
tory service.  This  incident  led  to  one  of  the  very  important 
improvements  in  direct-current  dynamo  construction,  the 
use  of  slotted  armatures  in  large  dynamos;  they  had  been 
used  before  in  small  ones.  After  the  building  of  a  machine 


CHANGES  IN  GENERATORS  99 

of  this  type  was  well  under  way  the  opinion  of  high  authori- 
ties was  taken,  in  Europe  and  America.  They  agreed  that 
it  was  absolutely  impossible  to  make  satisfactory  large- 
capacity,  slotted-armature  railway  dynamos,  and  that  it 
was  a  waste  of  money  to  attempt  it.  The  Westinghouse 
people  went  on,  and  when  this  first  machine  was  tested  the 
results  surprised  even  the  designers,  and  it  was  evident 
that  a  big  step  forward  had  been  made.  The  slotted  arma- 
ture soon  superseded  all  other  types  in  large  direct-current 
work,  and  several  manufacturers  were  temporarily  driven 
out  of  the  field.  For  a  time  the  Westinghouse  Company 
was  the  pace  maker  with  its  slotted-armature,  multipolar 
generator. 

About  this  time,  in  the  early  nineties,  came  the  direct- 
connected  generator,  followed  quickly  by  the  engine-type 
machine.  Theretofore  the  generator  had  been  driven  from 
the  prime  mover  by  a  belt.  The  direct-coupled  set  was  a 
generator  complete,  with  its  own  bearings,  connected  to  a 
standard  high-speed  engine.  In  the  true  engine-type  ma- 
chine the  armature  is  on  the  engine  shaft.  This  construc- 
tion called  for  many  changes  in  details,  but  the  develop- 
ment was  rapid,  and  generator  units  quickly  increased  in 
size.  By  1894  machines  of  1500  kilowatts  were  built,  and 
by  1898  generators  of  3000  kilowatts  were  in  hand.  In 
this  development  the  Westinghouse  Company  had  a  great 
part,  but  about  1899  it  gave  the  large  direct-current  genera- 
tor its  death  blow.  The  rotary  converter  had  been  de- 
veloped by  Westinghouse's  engineers,  and  they  had  brought 
forward  the  alternating-current  machinery  and  apparatus. 
The  combination  made  it  unnecessary  to  build  large  direct- 
current  generators  for  the  special  places  where  large  volumes 
of  direct  current  were  required.  Electric  energy  could  be 
developed  and  transmitted  as  alternating  current  and  con- 


100  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

verted  as  needed.  An  account  of  the  origin,  nature,  and 
functions  of  the  rotary  generator  will  be  given  later.  The 
economic  consequences  of  what  had  happened  will  become 
clear  as  we  go  on. 

Let  us  now  go  back  a  few  years  and  try  to  find  the  origin 
and  trace  the  development  of  the  alternating-current  con- 
ception in  the  mind  of  Westinghouse.  While  in  Italy  in 
the  early  part  of  1882  he  had  formed  a  close  friendship 
with  Doctor  Diomede  Pantaleoni,  an  eminent  Italian  phy- 
sician, whose  son,  Guido  Pantaleoni,  recently  had  been 
graduated  from  the  University  of  Turin.  Through  this 
acquaintance  Westinghouse  became  interested  in  a  proc- 
ess, invented  by  an  Italian,  for  making  artificial  marble 
from  gypsum,  and  he  arranged  with  Guido  Pantaleoni  and 
Albert  Schmid,  a  young  Swiss  engineer,  to  come  to  America 
for  the  purpose  of  manufacturing  this  product.  The  process 
was  never  of  commercial  utility,  and  Westinghouse  placed 
Pantaleoni  in  general  charge  of  certain  activities  of  the 
Union  Switch  &  Signal  Company  which  brought  him  into 
contact  with  the  electrical  work  upon  which  Stanley  was 
engaged. 

Pantaleoni  was  called  back  to  Italy  in  May  1885,  by  the 
death  of  his  father,  and  having  occasion  to  visit  his  old  pro- 
fessor, Galileo  Ferraris,  at  Turin,  he  there  met  Lucian  £au- 
lard,  who  had  installed  between  Lanzo  and  Circe  an  alter- 
nating-current system  of  distribution,  patented  by  himself 
and  John  Dixon  Gibbs.  This  meeting  had  great  conse- 
quences. Leonard  E.  Curtis,  an  eminent  patent  lawyer, 
who  later  became  associated  with  Thomas  B.  Kerr,  counsel 
for  the  Westinghouse  Company,  and  was  for  twenty  years 
in  the  thick  of  the  movement,  writes:  "It  was  in  1885  that 
Mr.  Westinghouse  became  interested  in  the  inventions  of 
Gaulard  and  Gibbs  relating  to  the  use  of  single-phase  alter- 


GAULARD  AND  GIBBS  APPEAR   .  101 

nating  currents  for  distribution  by  means  of  what  they 
called  secondary  generators  (now  called  transformers),  and 
that  was  the  starting  point  of  the  great  development  of 
the  alternating-current  system.  All  of  us  who  knew  any- 
thing at  all  about  the  practical  application  of  electricity, 
knew  that  the  induction  coil  was  necessarily  the  most  in- 
efficient transformer  of  energy  possible,  and  we  also  thought 
we  knew  that  there  were  other  objections  to  the  use  of  al- 
ternating currents,  which  would  make  their  commercial 
use  wholly  impracticable.  It  required  the  combination  of 
an  erratic  Frenchman,  Gaulard,  as  an  inventor,  and  a  sporty 
Englishman,  Gibbs,  as  a  financial  backer,  to  make  the  neces- 
sary experiments  to  show  that  that  was  not  necessarily  so, 
and  it  required  a  man  of  wide  vision  and  adequate  resources 
for  making  his  dreams  come  true,  like  Mr.  Westinghouse, 
to  introduce  the  alternating-current  system  into  the  wide 
field  it  was  destined  to  occupy."  No  one  knows  just  when 
Westinghouse  began  to  think  of  the  immense  results  to 
flow  from  the  transformation  of  voltage  and  current;  but 
it  is  certain  that  very  early  he  appreciated  that  the  limita- 
tions of  the  low-voltage  direct-current  system  might  be 
overcome  by  such  transformation.  He  foresaw  quite  clearly 
a  broad  field  for  electric  power,  and  this  was  the  vision  of 
which  we  often  speak. 

As  regards  Gaulard  and  Gibbs,  the  impression  conveyed 
by  Mr.  Curtis  is  neither  just  nor  adequate.  Gibbs  speaks 
of  Gaulard  as  a  "talented  young  Frenchman,"  as  he  un- 
doubtedly was.  It  is  true,  however,  that  he  died  insane. 
Gibbs  may  have  been  sporty;  he  was  a  "good  sport,"  and 
he  lost  his  fortune  like  a  man.  Neither  of  them  was  an 
electrical  engineer.  Gibbs  says  he  "conceived  the  idea 
that  it  would  be  a  great  step,  if  it  should  be  possible,  to 
convey  an  electric  current  capable  of  lighting  a  small  in- 


102.  A  IIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

candescent  glow  lamp  at  a  considerable  distance,  perhaps 
some  miles  from  the  dynamos,  as  was  already  possible  with 
arc  lamps,  while  the  more  generally  useful  incandescent 
lamp  could  not  be  lighted  beyond  500  yards  from  the  power- 
station."  He  hired  Gaulard,  and  they  soon  "discovered 
and  demonstrated  that  the  actual  transformation  of  alter- 
nating current  practically  costs  no  expenditure  of  energy." 
Their  first  transformer  is  now  in  the  South  Kensington 
Museum.  They  took  out  patents,  organized  companies, 
took  lighting  contracts,  and  made  exhibitions.  Their  pat- 
ents were  attacked,  and  the  suits  finally  went  to  the  House 
of  Lords  on  appeal.  Here  after  seven  years  of  litigation 
Gibbs  was  defeated.  He  says:  "I  left  the  House  of  Lords 
a  ruined  man."  But  he  died  hard.  With  the  help  of  Schnei- 
der of  Creusot  he  organized  a  French  company  to  distribute 
electric  power  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Seine,  but  he  does 
not  seem  to  have  recouped  his  fortune. 

The  "secondary  generator"  (or  transformer)  of  Gaulard 
and  Gibbs  was  first  shown  in  public  hi  1883  at  the  Royal 
Aquarium  in  London.  It  was  exhibited  in  Turin  in  1884, 
and  a  plant  was  installed  at  Tivoli  to  send  lighting  current 
to  Rome.  For  this  installation  the  Italian  Government 
gave  Gaulard  and  Gibbs  a  gold  medal  and  a  prize  of  £400. 

Pantaleoni  was  so  much  impressed  by  what  he  saw  and 
learned  at  Turin  that  he  cabled  an  account  to  Westinghouse, 
who  promptly  requested  Pantaleoni  to  secure  an  option 
upon  the  American  rights  of  Gaulard  and  Gibbs.  Accord- 
ingly Pantaleoni  proceeded  to  London  and  there  met  Gibbs, 
and  secured  from  him  an  option  which  he  brought  back 
with  him  upon  his  return  to  the  United  States  in  1885. 
Westinghouse  at  once  accepted  the  option  in  principle,  al- 
though asking  for  certain  changes  in  detail.  • 

Westinghouse  instructed  Pope  to  make  a  careful  investi- 


LOOKS  INTO  GAULARD  AND  GIBBS  103 

gation  of  the  Gaulard  and  Gibbs  patent  situation  and  to 
study  the  possibilities  of  their  system.  Pope,  in  testimony 
given  in  1887,  in  connection  with  the  Gaulard  and  Gibbs 
patent  litigation,  said: 

My  own  impression  at  first  sight  was,  like  that  of  every 
one  else,  an  unfavorable  one.  The  knowledge  which  I  had 
gathered  in  the  ordinary  course  of  my  professional  experi- 
ence' led  me  to  expect  that  the  loss  of  energy  in  conversion 
would  be  so  great  as  to  render  the  scheme  commercially 
unprofitable,  and  that  this  lost  energy,  appearing  in  the 
form  of  heat,  would  quickly  destroy  the  apparatus,  or  at 
least  render  it  useless;  and  it  was  not  until  I  had  gone  care- 
fully through  the  published  researches  of  Hopkinson  and 
Ferraris  that  I  found  reason  to  change  my  opinion.  I  fol- 
lowed up  the  matter  by  personal  investigations  of  the  ap- 
paratus in  operation,  and  was  convinced  of  its  novelty  and 
industrial  value. 

The  extracts  which  I  have  quoted  are  but  fair  samples 
of  the  communications  and  articles  which  appeared  in  many 
of  the  technical  periodicals,  and  in  fact  I  may  say  that,  so 
far  as  I  now  recollect,  all  these  journals,  without  exception, 
whenever  they  took  any  notice  at  all  of  the  work  of  Gaulard 
and  Gibbs,  did  so  in  a  spirit  of  hostile  criticism,  which  con- 
tinued not  only  long  after  the  successful  installation  of  the 
plant  in  many  places,  but  continues  in  many  quarters  up 
to  the  present  hour. 

Westinghouse  instructed  Stanley  and  his  assistants, 
Schmid  and  0.  B.  Shallenberger,  to  make  tests  to  determine 
the  commercial  value  of  the  Gaulard  and  Gibbs  system.  He 
also  arranged  to  have  a  number  of  the  transformers  and  a 
Siemens  alternating-current  generator  forwarded  from  Eng- 
land to  Pittsburgh.  This  apparatus  was  brought  over  by 
Reginald  Belfield,  an  assistant  of  Gaulard  and  Gibbs,  who 
arrived  in  this  country  late  in  November  1885. 


104  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

1  In  the  meantime  considerable  progress  had  been  made 
abroad.  A  plant  had  been  installed  at  Aschersleben,  Ger- 
many, which  appears  to  have  been  moderately  satisfactory. 
A  bit  of  the  Metropolitan  Railway  (London)  had  been 
lighted,  from  Netting  Hill  Gate  to  Aldgate.  The  Grosvenor 
Gallery  Company  had  been  formed  to  light  the  Bond  Street 
and  Regent  Street  districts.  This  is  now  one  of  the  largest 
lighting  companies  of  London.  In  the  spring  of  1885  the 
Inventions  Exhibition  (London)  had  been  opened  with 
Mr.  Belfield  in  charge  there  of  the  Gaulard  and  Gibbs  ap- 
paratus. The  installations  of  the  Gaulard  and  Gibbs  "  secon- 
dary generators"  at  Turin,  on  the  Metropolitan  Railway, 
and  at  the  Inventions  Exhibition  received  much  attention 
in  the  technical  press  of  Europe.  As  one  result  of  the  knowl- 
edge thus  spread  abroad  Zipernowski,  Deri,  and  Bldthey, 
engineers  in  the  employ  of  Ganz  of  Budapesth,  brought  out 
transformers  which  were  shown  at  the  Inventions  Exhibi- 
tion. These  were  designed  and  wound  to  run  with  their 
primaries  in  parallel,  an  arrangement  which  Westinghouse 
adopted  from  the  start  although  the  Gaulard  and  Gibbs 
apparatus  was  designed  for  operation  in  series. 

Immediately  on  the  arrival  of  the  Gaulard  and  Gibbs  ap- 
paratus at  Pittsburgh,  Westinghouse  began  his  study  of  it. 
Those  who  knew  him  will  understand  the  energy  he  threw 
into  this  work,  and  how  practical  were  his  suggestions  on  the 
mechanical  side,  and  how  readily  he  grasped  the  theoreti- 
cal lines  necessary,  applying  his  mechanical  knowledge  and 
skill  to  the  information  he  obtained,  with  the  result  that 
in  an  astonishingly  short  time  the  uncommercial  secondary 
generator  was  correctly  started  on  the  direct  line  of  develop- 
ment into  the  modern  transformer.  A  great  step  had  been 
taken.  It  led  directly  to  the  enormous  electrical  advance 
that  we  have  seen  during  the  past  three  decades,  and  the 


HOW  HE  WORKED  105 

essential  conceptions  were  formed  and  pretty  well  developed 
within  about  three  weeks — from  December  1  to  December 
20,  1885. 

Those  who  watched  Westinghouse  and  worked  with  him 
through  the  years  ceased  to  be  surprised  at  his  capacity  to 
do  extraordinary  things  and  to  do  them  quickly.  They 
learned  too,  that  this  capacity  was  not  only  a  matter  of 
intellectual  gifts,  but  also  a  matter  of  dogged  industry  and 
of  power  to  work  fast  and  to  make  other  men  work  fast. 
Through  the  long  evenings  he  worked  in  his  private  car 
and  in  his  house,  designing,  sketching,  and  dictating.  In 
his  car  any  corner  of  a  table  would  do,  in  his  house  he  worked 
on  a  billiard  table.  Seated  and  leaning  uncomfortably  over 
the  rail,  he  drew  rapidly  and  with  accuracy  and  complete- 
ness of  detail,  while  those  around  him  watched  and  an- 
swered questions  and  made  suggestions  if  they  could.  Prob- 
ably he  had  no  pencil  but  borrowed  one  from  the  nearest 
man.  As  these  pencils  were  never  returned  one  wondered 
what  became  of  them.  His  trail  through  the  world  was 
blazed  with  other  men's  pencils.  An  instance  of  his  speed- 
ing-up other  men  is  told  by  Mr.  E.  M.  Herr,  now  President 
of  the  Electric  Company,  and  some  tune  General  Manager 
of  the  Brake  Company.  Mr.  Herr  says: 

In  all  my  experience  with  and  work  for  Mr.  Westing- 
house,  I  never  but  once  succeeded  in  doing  a  piece  of  work 
for  him  quicker  than  he  thought  it  could  be  done.  On  this 
occasion  he  sent  me  a  pattern  to  Wilmerding  (the  Air  Brake 
Works),  which  arrived  there  Sunday  morning.  He  had 
notified  Mrs.  Herr  in  my  absence  on  Saturday  that  this 
would  be  at  Wilmerding  on  Sunday,  and  that  she  should 
be  particular  to  see  that  I  got  this  information  immediately 
on  my  return,  Sunday  morning.  On  getting  the  informa- 
tion, I  called  up  the  superintendent  of  the  foundry  at  Wil- 


106  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

merding,  told  him  of  this  pattern  and  asked  him  to  get  it 
at  the  station,  and  see  if  he  could  get  one  of  our  moulders 
to  mould  it  Sunday  afternoon  so  that  it  could  be  poured  the 
first  thing  Monday  morning.  Owing  to  the  continuous 
process  of  moulding  in  use  at  the  Air  Brake  Company's 
foundry,  unlike  other  foundries,  the  pouring  of  metal  began 
at  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning.  I  was  at  Wilmerding  be- 
fore seven  o'clock  that  Monday  morning,  and  saw  that 
this  pattern  was  poured  of  the  first  iron  out  of  the  cupola, 
as  I  expected  Mr.  Westinghouse  would  be  out  on  an  early 
train  to  see  what  progress  we  had  made  on  this  casting  which 
he  had  told  me  he  wished  to  have  sent  to  the  Electric  Works 
at  East  Pittsburgh  as  soon  as  it  was  cold  enough  to  be  hauled 
down  there.  As  soon  as  the  metal  had  hardened  in  the 
mould,  we  took  it  out,  put  some  sand  in  one  of  our  delivery 
wagons,  and  put  the  red-hot  casting  in  it  and  sent  it  to  the 
Electric  Works.  The  wagon  had  hardly  got  out  of  the  yard 
when  Mr.  Westinghouse  appeared.  In  his  usual  pleasant 
manner  he  greeted  us,  wished  us  good  morning,  and  asked 
me  if  I  had  got  word  about  the  pattern  he  had  sent  out  on 
Sunday.  I  told  him  I  had  and  he  then  asked  when  it  would 
be  moulded.  I  told  him  it  was  moulded.  "Indeed.  When 
will  you  have  a  casting?"  "The  casting  is  made,"  I  re- 
plied. "That  so?  That's  good.  How  soon  can  you  send 
it  to  the  Electric  Company?"  I  said:  "It  has  gone."  Mr. 
Westinghouse  looked  at  me,  hesitated  a  moment,  turned 
around  and  started  off  at  a  brisk  pace.  "Then  I  will  go 
down  there  and  hustle  those  fellows,"  and  off  he  went. 

An  old  employee  tells  this:  "The  drum  rolled  off  and 
broke  in  two  pieces,  so  we  had  to  hustle  and  make  a  new 
one  before  Mr.  Westinghouse  got  around.  We  worked  all 
night,  but  did  not  succeed  in  finishing  the  work  before  Mr. 
Westinghouse  got  to  the  works  the  following  morning,  so 
our  foreman  had  to  tell  him  what  had  happened.  All  he 
said  was:  ' It  is  a  good  thing  such  accidents  happen,  just 
to  see  how  fast  you  fellows  can  work.'  " 


George  Westinghouse  at  work. 
(From  a  snapshot  photograph.) 


THE  BIRTH  OF  THE  TRANSFORMER  107 

There  are  many  tales  of  this  sort  floating  about  in  the 
various  companies. 

It  is  not  to  be  understood  that  Westinghouse,  in  a  miracu- 
lous three  weeks,  by  a  flash  of  genius,  made  the  transformer. 
The  way  was  long  and  hard  and  many  fine  minds  were  en- 
listed. What  happened  was  that  the  swift  and  penetrating 
insight  of  Westinghouse,  and  his  keen  and  experienced  me- 
chanical faculty,  discerned  what  must  be  done  to  change  a 
scientific  toy  into  a  commercial  tool,  and  the  way  to  do  it. 

A  general  word  about  the  transformer  may  help  us  to 
appreciate  what  follows.  The  transformer  is  not  interest- 
ing to  look  at.  It  is  a  mere  mass  of  metal,  dull  and  mo- 
tionless. It  is  not  even  graceful  in  outline  or  proportion. 
But  it  is  the  heart  of  the  alternating-current  system.  The 
reason  for  being  of  the  alternating-current  system  lies  in 
its  capabilities  for  simple  transformation  of  voltage  over 
almost  any  required  range,  from  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
volts  down  to  almost  nothing.  Without  this  ability  to  trans- 
form voltage,  the  alternating-current  system  probably 
would  not  exist  today,  or  at  least  it  would  doubtless  hold 
a  position  secondary  to  direct  current.  This  capability  of 
voltage  transformation  lies  in  the  transformer  itself.  It 
will  be  said  many  times  in  this  narrative,  and  in  many  ways, 
that  the  development  of  the  art  of  distributing  electric 
energy  by  means  of  the  alternating  current  has  already 
changed  the  face  of  society,  and  still  greater  changes  are 
yet  to  come.  Therein  is  the  meaning  of  that  three  weeks 
at  East  Pittsburgh  and  of  the  later  work  of  Stanley,  Shal- 
lenberger,  and  Schmid  in  developing  the  transformer.  Stan- 
ley's part  in  this  development  will  be  told  in  some  detail 
as  we  proceed.  A  word  in  passing  is  due  to  Shallenberger 
and  Schmid,  both  dead  now.  They  were  highly  gifted  men 
of  particularly  fine  character.  They  were  young  in  years 


108  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

in  1886  and  young  in  the  electric  art,  but  they  made  an 
impression  on  the  product  of  the  company  which  lasts  to 
this  day.  The  present  Chief  Engineer  says  that  "it  was 
due  to  Shallenberger  that  the  early  Westinghouse  transform- 
ers were  brought  to  a  practical  commercial  condition.  He 
was  a  good  analytical  man  and  was  able  to  take  very  scanty 
data  and  get  practical  results."  The  memory  of  Shallen- 
berger and  Schmid  is  held  in  affection  and  esteem  by  those 
who  worked  with  them  in  the  pioneer  years. 

The  "secondary  generator"  as  brought  to  the  United 
States  was  designed  by  Gaulard,  who  had  discussed  it  with 
some  of  the  most  prominent  scientists  in  Europe,  and  it 
should  have  been,  from  the  advantages  M.  Gaulard  en- 
joyed, further  developed  than  it  actually  was.  The  original 
apparatus  was  the  old  and  well-known  induction  coil.  It 
was  not  a  practicable  commercial  apparatus  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  manufacturer  or  of  the  user.  Westinghouse, 
as  soon  as  he  grasped  the  fundamental  electrical  facts  under- 
lying the  working  of  the  instrument,  applied  himself  to  the 
production  of  a  piece  of  apparatus  which  could  be  wound 
on  a  lathe,  discarding  the  unpractical  soldered  joints  and 
stamped  copper  disks  for  the  more  commercial  form  of  ordi- 
nary insulated  copper  wire,  and  it  was  then  a  question  of 
only  a  few  days  before  he  had  evolved  the  H-shaped  plate 
built  up,  and  then  the  primary  and  secondary  were  wound 
in  place  on  a  lathe,  and  the  ends  were  closed  by  means  of 
intervening  I-shaped  plates.  These  are  the  essentials  of  a 
modern  transformer.  It  is  interesting  to  look  back  and 
realize  that  with  the  time  that  this  invention  had  been  be- 
fore the  public  and  the  many  minds  working  on  it,  no  simple 
and  practical  solution  should  have  been  found,  whereas  it 
took  Westinghouse  only  three  weeks  to  work  out  those 
leading  features  of  mechanical  design  which  have  been 
standard  ever  since. 


THE  GROWTH  OF  THE  TRANSFORMER          109 

Stanley;  working  under  the  direction  of  Westinghouse, 
devised  a  further  improvement,  which  consisted  in  secur- 
ing the  enclosure  of  the  coils  by  making  the  core  of  E- 
shaped  plates,  the  central  projections  of  each  successive 
plate  being  alternately  inserted  through  prewound  coils 
from  opposite  sides,  thus  permitting  separate  winding  and 
consequently  the  better  insulation  of  the  coils.  This  form 
was  further  improved  by  Albert  Schrnid,  who  extended 
the  ends  of  the  arms  of  the  E  to  meet  the  central  pro- 
jection. When  inserting  these  plates  the  extensions  were 
temporarily  bent  upward,  and  upon  being  released  each 
plate  formed  a  closed  magnetic  circuit  about  the  sides  of 
the  coils. 

In  the  early  transformers  the  core-plates  were  made  of 
very  thin  sheet  iron  commonly  called  tintype  metal,  hav- 
ing one  side  covered  with  thin  paper  to  prevent  the  flow 
of  eddy  or  Foucault  currents.  Pasting  paper  on  the  plates 
was  highly  objectionable  as  a  manufacturing  process,  and 
this  led  Albert  Schmid  to  build  a  transformer  without  the 
paper.  To  the  surprise  but  greatly  to  the  gratification  of 
the  electrical  engineers  of  the  company  it  was  found  that 
the  oxide  formed  upon  the  surface  of  the  iron  sheets  served 
as  a  sufficient  insulation  and,  with  the  decreased  separation 
of  the  sheets,  resulted  in  increased  efficiency.  The  use  of 
paper  was  then  discontinued. 

Mention  should  also  be  made  of  two  other  important 
early  contributions  to  the  development  of  the  transform- 
ers made  by  Westinghouse  in  1886,  one  of  which  is  the 
ventilated  core  for  preventing  overheating  by  permitting 
the  circulation  of  air;  the  other  is  the  well-known  oil-cooled 
transformer  of  the  present  time.  The  patent  secured  by 
Westinghouse  on  the  latter  device  was  the  subject  of  ex- 
tensive litigation,  which  resulted  in  the  patent  being 
broadly  sustained. 


110  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

These  various  inventions  and  discoveries  led  up  within 
a  year  to  commercial  production  of  transformers  of  high 
efficiency  and  excellent  regulating  qualities.  The  develop- 
ment was  a  fine  engineering  performance  in  speed  and  in 
quality.  The  most  important  single  contribution  was  by 
Stanley.  He  brought  out  the  parallel  connection  in  which 
the  transformers  are  connected  in  parallel,  across  the  con- 
stant-potential alternating-current  system,  instead  of  being 
arranged  in  series,  as  in  the  Gaulard  and  Gibbs  connection. 
He  obtained  patents  on  the  method,  involving  the  construc- 
tion of  transformers  in  which  the  counter  electromotive 
force  generated  in  the  primary  of  the  transformer  was  prac- 
tically equal  to  the  electromotive  force  of  the  supply  cir- 
cuit. This  is  obvious  now,  but  in  1886,  when  the  principles 
and  characteristics  of  the  alternating  current  were  prac- 
tically unknown,  it  was  a  wonderful  invention,  and  revolu- 
tionary in  character.  On  this  invention  Stanley's  fame 
largely  rests.  Of  course  Stanley  did  not  discover  or  invent 
a  theory  of  counter  electromotive  force  before  any  one 
else  had  thought  of  it.  Such  fundamental  things  seldom 
happen  in  invention.  His  claim  to  great  and  original  merit 
rests  on  the  discovery  of  a  theory  which  was  new  to  him 
and  the  use  of  it  in  making  a  structure  of  immense  impor- 
tance in  the  affairs  of  men.  Westinghouse's  situation  as 
an  original  inventor  of  the  air  brake  is  exactly  similar. 
Briefly,  all  transformers  now  made  are  built  upon  practi- 
cally the  same  principles  as  those  that  were  developed  in 
these  early  products  of  the  Westinghouse  Company. 

According  to  the  Gaulard  and  Gibbs  system  as  at  first 
announced  the  transformers  were  arranged  in  series.  As  to 
the  broad  principle  of  parallel  connection  of  transformers 
instead  of  the  Gaulard  and  Gibbs  series  arrangement,  it  is 
of  interest  to  note  that  under  date  of  June  2,  1883,  an  ar- 


THE  REVOLUTION  IS  BEGUN  111 

tide  by  Rankin  Kennedy  appeared  in  the  London  Tele- 
graphic Journal  and  Electrical  Review  in  which  he  demon- 
strated that  with  transformers  having  their  primaries  ar- 
ranged in  parallel  rather  than  in  series,  "the  secondary 
generator  is  a  beautiful  self-governing  system  of  distribu- 
tion"; apparently,  however,  Kennedy  had  not  then  in 
mind  the  possibility  of  using  high-potential  primary  and 
low-potential  secondary  coils,  and  was  thus  led  into  the 
error  of  closing  his  article  with  the  expression,  "but  what 
about  the  size  of  conductors  for  such  a  system?  Pro- 
digious." Fortunately,  the  engineers  at  Pittsburgh  were 
not  led  into  like  errors,  and  Kennedy  himself  soon  cor- 
rected his  views. 

To  sum  up  in  a  few  words:  Gaulard  and  Gibbs  considered, 
developed,  and  demonstrated  crudely  the  general  principle 
of  transformation  of  electrical  energy.  De"ri,  Bldthy,  and 
Zipernowski  of  Budapesth  early  began  research  in  the  same 
direction.  Westinghouse  took  the  crude  ideas  and,  with 
his  engineers,  worked  out  a  commercial  system  and  revo- 
lutionized the  electric  art. 

The  swift  development  in  December  1885,  and  in 
the  first  months  of  1886  satisfied  Westinghouse  as  to  the 
great  merit  of  the  system  and  of  its  tremendous  possibili- 
ties. He  quickly  realized  that  the  alternating-current 
system  was  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  economically 
transmitting  through  long  distances,  inasmuch  as  it  could 
carry  large  quantities  of  electrical  energy  in  the  form  of 
high  voltage  and  low  amperage,  and  that  the  transformers 
supplied  the  means  for  locally  readjusting  the  voltage  to 
consumption  requirements. 

Having  decided  that  the  capabilities  of  the  system  war- 
ranted using  every  endeavor  to  secure  proper  patent  pro- 
tection in  the  United  States,  Westinghouse  in  January 


112  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

1886,  sent  Pantaleoni  and  Pope  to  England  to  complete 
the  negotiations  with  Gaulard  and  Gibbs  and  prepare  the 
necessary  patent  applications.  This  was  accomplished  in 
February.  The  article  of  Rankin  Kennedy  above  referred 
to  also  presented  possibilities  in  the  patent  direction,  and 
later  Westinghouse  bought  the  Kennedy  American  rights. 
Zipernowski,  Deri,  and  Bldthy  had  obtained  a  British 
patent  in  1884  for  "Improvements  in  transforming  and 
distributing  alternating  current  and  apparatus  therefore." 
Some  negotiations  were  had  by  Westinghouse  looking  to 
the  purchase  of  these  rights,  but  it  was  later  found  their 
opportunity  of  obtaining  in  the  United  States  any  patents 
of  value  had  been  forfeited,  and  negotiations  with  them 
were  dropped. 

Early  in  the  work  upon  the  alternating  system  there  was 
brought  to  the  attention  of  Westinghouse  the  fact  that 
Philip  Diehl,  of  Elizabeth,  N.  J.,  then  Superintendent  of 
the  Singer  Sewing  Machine  Company,  had  done  some  early 
work  with  alternating  currents,  particularly  in  the  line  of 
producing  an  incandescent  lamp  without  leading-in  wires. 
Diehl's  plan  was  to  enclose  within  the  lamp  globe  the  secon- 
dary of  an  induction  coil  and  induce  currents  therein  by 
an  externally  located  primary  coil.  Diehl  had  obtained 
patents  upon  these  devices,  and  because  of  the  possible 
bearing  which  Diehl's  work  might  have  upon  the  whole 
alternating-current  system,  Westinghouse  in  1887  bought 
these  patents  as  a  precautionary  measure,  but  not  with 
the  thought  that  this  form  of  incandescent  lamp  in  itself 
would  prove  to  be  of  practical  worth. 

When  Westinghouse  became  convinced  that  the  alter- 
nating-current system  would  be  of  the  veiy  greatest  im- 
portance to  mankind  in  enlarging  the  field  for  the  use  of 
electrical  energy,  he  became  possessed  of  a  strong  desire 


A  COMPANY  FORMED  113 

to  take  up  and  carry  on  the  work  of  its  development.  On 
December  23,  1885,  he,  in  company  with  H.  H.  Westing- 
house,  John  Caldwell,  Frank  L.  Pope,  John  Dalzell,  John 
R.  McGinley,  C.  H.  Jackson,  and  Robert  Pitcairn,  executed 
articles  of  association  and  an  application  for  a  charter  for 
a  corporation  to  be  known  as  the  Westinghouse  Electric 
Company,  the  capital  stock  of  which  was  to  be  $1,000,000. 
Among  the  assets  of  the  corporation  were  twenty-seven 
patents  and  applications  relating  to  the  electrical  art  in- 
cluding those  of  Gaulard  and  Gibbs,  Stanley,  Shallenberger, 
and  others.  The  charter  was  granted  January  8,  1886, 
and  the  practical  organization  of  the  company  was  effected 
March  8,  1886,  Westinghouse  being  made  President,  H. 
H.  Westinghouse,  Vice-President,  A.  T.  Rowan,  Secretary, 
and  Guido  Pantaleoni  remained  General  Manager  until 
September  15,  1886,  when  he  resigned  and  H.  H.  Byllesby, 
who  had  been  the  electrical  executive  of  Westinghouse, 
Church,  Kerr  &  Company,  was  elected  to  that  office. 

Late  in  1885  Stanley's  health  having  been  impaired  he 
had  moved  to  Great  Harrington,  Mass.,  and  Westinghouse 
assumed  the  expense  of  conducting  there  a  laboratory  for 
the  purpose  of  further  developing  and  practically  demon- 
strating the  utility  of  the  alternating  system.  Belfield, 
who  had  brought  over  the  Gaulard  and  Gibbs  apparatus 
and  who  had  spent  a  few  weeks  with  Westinghouse  at  Pitts- 
burgh, helping  in  the  design  of  the  new  transformer,  went 
with  Stanley.  Their  chief  work  was  to  develop  the  trans- 
former commercially.  They  designed,  built,  and  installed 
an  experimental  plant  at  Great  Harrington,  comprising  a 
dynamo  sent  over  from  England  and  wires  extending  to 
various  stores  in  the  center  of  the  town,  where  were  placed 
transformers  feeding  lamps  for  lighting  the  stores.  The 
operation  of  this  experimental  plant  began  March  16, 


114  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

1886.  This  was  the  first  operating  alternating-current 
transformer  installation  in  the  United  States.  The  first 
commercial  plant  employing  the  alternating-current  system 
was  installed  by  the  Westinghouse  Company  in  Buffalo, 
N.  Y.;  where  it  was  put  in  operation  November  30,  1886. 
This  was  rapidly  followed  by  other  installations  scattered 
throughout  the  country. 

Coincidentally  with  the  development  of  the  transformer, 
the  company  brought  out  a  new  alternating-current  genera- 
tor designed  by  Stanley.  This  was  a  much  more  practical 
and  efficient  form  than  the  old  Siemens  type.  Many  other 
devices  required  in  connection  with  the  system  were  pro- 
duced with  surprising  rapidity  by  the  corps  of  brilliant 
young  engineers  who  entered  the  employ  of  the  company 
during  the  first  two  or  three  years.  The  contributions  of 
Shallenberger  and  Schmid  proved  to  be  of  inestimable  value 
to  the  company,  and  the  high  regard  which  Westinghouse 
held  for  both  of  these  brilliant  inventors  and  their  aides 
he  manifested  at  every  opportunity.  Among  the  devices 
which  immediately  found  extensive  use  was  a  voltage  regu- 
lator invented  by  Lewis  B.  Stillwell,  a  young  engineer  just 
graduated  from  college,  who  at  the  suggestion  of  Byllesby 
was  employed  by  Westinghouse  late  in  1886.  Stillwell  ex- 
plained the  regulator  to  Westinghouse  as  a  device  adapted 
to  raise  the  alternating-current  voltage  at  any  desired 
point.  Westinghouse  was  greatly  pleased  and  at  once 
christened  it  the  "Stillwell  booster,"  a  title  which  became 
the  popular  name  of  this  type  of  apparatus,  technically 
called  the  Stillwell  regulator.  Various  other  important  ad- 
juncts to  the  system  were  devised  by  Byllesby,  Shallen- 
berger, Belfield,  and  others  of  the  company's  force. 

As  soon  as  it  became  evident  that  Westinghouse  proposed 
to  exploit  extensively  the  alternating-current  system  great 


ALTERNATING  CURRENT  RESISTED  115 

opposition  was  developed.  Looking  back  at  history,  one  is 
surprised  at  the  stupidity  and  the  puerility  of  some  of  this 
opposition.  Men  of  great  repute  gave  their  names  and 
their  help  to  methods  of  which  they  must  now  be  thor- 
oughly ashamed.  They  know  now  that  if  they  had  suc- 
ceeded, the  progress  of  civilization  would  have  been  delayed 
—how  much  and  how  long  we  cannot  even  guess.  Lord 
Kelvin  said:  "The  electric  development  we  know  today 
would  long  have  halted  without  his  daring  and  resourceful- 
ness." Assertions  were  made  that  the  alternating  current 
was  dangerous  and  deadly,  that  its  use  should  not  be  per- 
mitted commercially,  and  numerous  articles  appeared  in 
the  newspapers  and  elsewhere  designed  to  prejudice  public 
opinion  against  the  system.  The  most  popular  electrician 
in  the  world  wrote  in  the  North  American  Review,  Novem- 
ber 1889:  "There  is  no  plea  which  will  justify  the  use  of 
high  alternating  currents,  either  in  a  scientific  or  commer- 
cial sense  .  .  .  and  my  personal  desire  would  be  to  pro- 
hibit entirely  the  use  of  the  alternating  current." 

If  anything  was  needed  to  urge  Westinghouse  to  greater 
effort,  this  antagonism  served  the  purpose,  he  being  well 
convinced  from  his  own  observations  and  the  counsel  of  his 
electrical  associates  that  of  the  two  the  direct  current 
brought  greater  risk  to  life  and  property.  This  was  not 
because  one  form  of  current  was,  in  its  nature,  more  dan- 
gerous than  the  other,  but  because  of  the  conditions  of  use. 
This  contest,  long  and  acrimonious  on  the  part  of  the  op- 
ponents, Westinghouse  met  with  smiling  calmness  and 
justified  confidence.  It  is  needless  to  enlarge  upon  this 
aspect  of  the  development.  Every  well-informed  human 
being  knows  Westinghouse  was  right,  the  alternating  elec- 
tric current  being  now  used  to  generate  and  convey  about 
95  per  cent  of  the  electric  energy  used  in  power  and  light- 


116  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

ing  in  the  United  States.  The  latest  information  available 
at  the  time  of  writing  is  from  the  United  States  Census  of 
Electrical  Industries  for  1917.  The  census  of  equipment 
of  central  stations  (commercial  and  municipal)  and  of  elec- 
tric railways  shows  that  the  kilowatt  capacity  of  direct- 
current  generators  "forms  a  negligible  part  of  the  total." 
In  fact  it  was  about  5  per  cent  in  1917.  An  exact  statement 
is  not  possible,  for  the  returns  from  electric  railways  are 
not  complete,  and  the  census  report  gives  no  figures  for  the 
"isolated  plants"  operated  solely  for  the  benefit  of  the  owner 
and  none  for  plants  owned  and  operated  by  the  Federal 
and  State  governments.  It  does  not  seem  important,  how- 
ever, to  elaborate  the  point.  Some  notion  of  the  present 
size  of  the  business  of  distributing  electric  power  may  be 
got  from  the  fact  that  in  1919  the  central  power  stations 
of  the  United  States  generated  40,000,000,000  kilowatt- 
hours  of  energy.  This  was  carried  to  the  users  over  87,000 
miles  of  high-tension  transmission  lines.  And  yet  there  is 
scarcely  a  central  power  station  which  can  meet  the  de- 
mand upon  it  for  power  for  industrial  uses. 

This  is  briefly  the  history  of  the  beginning  of  the  indus- 
trial and  commercial  use  of  the  alternating-current  system. 
For  transmitting  power  electricity  has  no  economical  com- 
petitor. Its  limitation  is  the  cost  of  conductors;  this  is 
less  if  the  volume  of  current  is  small  and  the  voltage  is  high. 
This  is  seen  in  the  early  struggles  of  the  direct-current  cen- 
tral station  to  increase  its  area  of  distribution.  The  in- 
crease from  110  to  220  volts  by  the  so-called  three-wire  sys- 
tem and  the  unsuccessful  endeavor  to  devise  other  systems 
by  which  higher  voltages  could  be  used  indicated  the  need 
of  higher  voltage  and  set  the  limit  of  the  direct  current. 
The  transformer  in  permitting  a  small  current,  transmitted 
at  high  voltage,  to  be  transformed  into  a  large  current  at 


CENTRAL  POWER-STATION  IDEA  117 

low  voltage  by  means  of  stationary  apparatus  supplies  the 
essential  factor  in  electric  transmission.  This  Westinghouse 
early  appreciated.  The  whole  story  of  electrical  progress 
is  the  story  of  advancing  voltages.  Each  increase  has  been 
followed  by  transmission  to  longer  distances  and  the  eco- 
nomic use  of  power  on  a  larger  scale. 

Westinghouse's  conception  of  what  had  been  done  may 
be  summed  up  in  a  few  words  to  be  found  in  a  paper  pre- 
sented by  him  at  a  joint  meeting  of  engineering  societies 
in  London  in  1910: 

As  an  illustration  of  the  wonders  of  the  laws  of  nature, 
few  inventions  or  discoveries  with  which  we  are  familiar 
can  excel  the  static  transformer  of  the  electrical  energy  of 
alternating  currents  of  high  voltage  into  the  equivalent 
energy  at  a  lower  voltage.  To  have  discovered  how  to  make 
an  inert  mass  of  metal  capable  of  transforming  alternat- 
ing currents  of  100;000  volts  into  currents  of  any  required 
lower  voltage  with  a  loss  of  only  a  trifle  of  the  energy  so 
transformed  would  have  been  to  achieve  enduring  fame. 
The  facts  divide  this  honor  among  a  few,  the  beneficiaries 
will  be  tens  of  millions. 

We  have  now  traced  in  a  general  way  the  growth  in  the 
mind  of  George  Westinghouse  of  his  interest  in  the  uses 
of  electricity,  and  we  have  traced  also  some  of  the  steps 
taken  in  putting  that  interest  into  practice.  It  remains 
to  consider  some  specific  developments;  but  first  let  us 
note  the  big  fundamental  thought  that  gradually  took  pos- 
session of  his  mind  and  eventually  came  to  dominate  it. 
Around  this  thought  was  built  the  great  structure  of  his 
electrical  industries,  and  it  influenced  later  the  nature  and 
direction  of  his  mechanical  industries.  For  convenience  we 
may  call  this  the  central  power-station  idea,  the  idea  of 
manufacturing  power  in  quantities,  at  advantageous  places, 


118  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

and  distributing  it  for  use.  It  is  one  phase  of  the  era  of 
manufactured  power  into  which  mankind  entered  when 
James  Watt  made  the  steam  engine  a  tool  for  the  con- 
version of  energy  for  convenient  daily  use,  which  began  a 
new  era  in  the  history  of  the  race.  The  reader  will  of 
course  observe  that  we  do  not  say  creating  power,  which  is 
manifestly  absurd,  but  manufacturing  power,  which  is 
merely  changing  matter  and  energy,  in  form  and  place.  It 
is  the  world-old  (universe-old)  process  of  transforming  en- 
ergy. Until  steam  was  harnessed,  man  had  transformed 
energy,  for  his  own  use  and  convenience,  by  hand  and  by 
help  of  his  tamed  animals  and,  in  favored  localities,  by 
wind  and  water.  When  he  learned  to  use  steam,  he  ac- 
quired a  new  capacity,  the  capacity  to  transform  energy  by 
machinery,  and  this  is  called  for  convenience  manufacturing 
power.  Harnessing  the  alternating  current  was  the  next 
great  step  in  enlarging  this  new  capacity,  as  will  be  shown 
in  some  detail  as  we  go  on. 

Westinghouse's  conception  of  the  place  in  the  affairs  of 
man  of  central  power  systems  became  great  when  he  real- 
ized the  possibilities  of  the  use  of  alternating  current.  That 
realization  was  an  inspiration  of  genius.  It  did  not  come 
overnight;  it  was  not  a  bolt  out  of  the  blue;  it  had  a  back- 
ground of  thought  and  experience,  and  we  are  told  that 
genius  is  a  manifestation  of  the  capacity  to  "toil  terribly." 

It  is  not  possible  to  say  when  the  thought  of  central 
power  systems  first  took  a  great  place  in  the  mind  of  West- 
inghouse.  He  did,  however,  develop  early  the  idea  of  con- 
verting energy  into  useful  power,  on  a  large  scale,  at  suit- 
able places,  carrying  it  to  greater  or  less  distances,  and  dis- 
tributing it  for  the  "use  and  convenience  of  man."  This 
is  the  conception  at  the  bottom  of  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant advances  in  production,  transportation,  and  comfort. 


CENTRAL  POWER-STATION  IDEA  119 

Watt  and  the  steam  engine  made  the  manufacture  of  power 
possible  and  changed  society.  The  next  great  step  was  to 
concentrate  the  manufacture  of  power  at  points  where  for 
o"ne  reason  or  another  it  could  be  manufactured  cheaply, 
and  that  could  only  be  done  when  cheap  transmission  was 
provided.  Westinghouse  more  than  any  other  one  man 
opened  up  the  way  for  cheap  transmission  of  power — this 
by  the  use  of  the  alternating  current. 

In  his  case  there  was  nothing  apocalyptic  in  the  central 
power-system  conception.  It  was  a  slow  growth  and  took 
several  shapes.  For  years  he  thought  of  piping  compressed 
air  along  the  lines  of  railroads  to  handle,  not  switches  and 
signals  alone,  but  cranes,  capstans,  riveters,  hammers,  and 
other  tools.  It  was  an  alluring  notion  which  was  in  his 
mind  long  before  he  began  to  think  of  the  uses  of  alternating 
current,  and  lingered  there  long  after  the  epoch-making 
developments  in  electric  transmission  at  Niagara  Falls. 
He  thought,  too,  for  a  long  time  of  piping  gas  to  gas-engine 
stations,  and  there  developing  power  for  manufacturing 
and  transportation.  Of  course,  he  had  no  monopoly  of 
such  notions.  Compressed  air  had  long  been  distributed 
in  Paris  for  operating  small  machinery,  and  in  1889  an  Amer- 
ican writer  said:  "It  is  now  known  to  be  practicable  to  dis- 
tribute from  one  central  station  to  another  all  the  light  and 
mechanical  power  used  in  any  city" — practical  but  not  yet 
practicable,  for  the  revolution  in  electrical  transmission  had 
hardly  begun.  This  was  four  years  after  Westinghouse 
began  to  develop  alternating-current  machinery  and  three 
years  before  the  successful  transmission  at  Telluride  and 
six  years  before  the  first  operation  of  the  Niagara  plant. 
It  has  been  said  that  our  ancestors  stole  all  our  best  inven- 
tions. The  difference  between  Westinghouse  and  his  ances- 
tors and  contemporaries  was  that  he  saw  his  vision  in  a  big 


120  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

way  and  followed  it  in  a  big  way.    It  was  a  matter  of  dif- 
ference of  mental  stature. 

Having  now  the  key  to  the  major  activities  of  Westing- 
house  for  the  last  half  of  his  life,  we  are  prepared  to  con- 
sider those  activities  in  some  detail. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  INDUCTION  MOTOR  AND  METER 

THE  transformer  showed  the  way  to  transmitting  alter- 
nating current  at  high  voltages  and  using  it  at  low  voltages. 
A  necessary  step  was  to  convert  it  into  direct  current  for 
local  use.  This  led  to  the  development  of  the  rotary  con- 
verter, of  which  something  is  said  in  the  next  chapter. 

Conversion  would  make  it  possible  to  use  direct-current 
motors,  but  if  the  alternating  system  was  to  become  gen- 
eral, alternating  motors  must  be  used  and  a  meter  must 
be  provided  to  measure  the  current  consumption.  These 
two  classes  of  service  devices,  the  motor  and  the  meter, 
did  not  exist. 

THE  MOTOR 

May  1,  1888,  patents  were  issued  to  Nikola  Tesla  for 
those  brilliant  inventions  which  have  made  his  name  famous 
and  which  disclosed  to  the  world  the  alternating-current 
motor.  A  writer  of  authority  has  said:  "The  invention 
of  alternating-current  motors,  and  the  system  for  oper- 
ating them,  was  one  of  the  greatest  advances  ever  made 
in  the  industrial  application  of  electricity."  No  one  will 
dispute  that;  in  fact,  he  might  have  gone  further  and  spe- 
cifically included  the  field  of  transportation.  Westinghouse 
immediately  saw  the  meaning  of  these  patents,  and  on  July 
7  he  secured  an  assignment  of  the  exclusive  rights  under 
them,  and  in  course  of  tune  the  Tesla  motor  became  one  of 
the  most  valuable  assets  of  the  Westinghouse  Company; 
but  not  at  once.  The  way  was  long  and  costly.  In  1893 

121 


122  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

the  induction  motor  (Tesla)  was  still  experimental,  although 
the  development  cost  to  that  stage  was  one  element  in  the 
financial  embarrassment  which  nearly  swamped  the  West- 
inghouse  Electric  Company  that  year.  A  year  or  two  more 
passed  before  it  had  become  a  commercial  machine. 

There  were  two  underlying  reasons  why  seven  years 
should  pass  from  Tesla's  invention  until  it  was  brought  to 
usefulness,  and  why  a  great  deal  of  money  should  be  spent 
in  developing  it. 

The  Tesla  motor  was  polyphase.  That  is,  it  required  two 
or  more  currents  whose  periods  of  alternation  were  not 
simultaneous;  in  the  language  of  the  art  they  must  be  out 
of  phase  with  each  other.  The  alternating-current  system 
as  then  developed  was  single  phase.  One  current  was  gen- 
erated and  transmitted  over  one  pair  of  main  conductors. 

The  second  reason  was  a  matter  of  frequency;  that  is, 
the  rate  at  which  the  direction  of  the  current  is  reversed. 
In  the  alternating  system,  as  then  developed,  the  standard 
frequency  was  16,000  alternations  per  minute  or  133  cycles 
per  second.  But  it  was  discovered  as  experiment  and  re- 
search went  on  that  a  frequency  so  high  as  133  cycles  was 
not  suitable  for  any  kind  of  alternating  current  motor. 

Westinghouse  and  his  engineers  stood  face  to  face  with 
three  fundamental  facts  of  which  the  magnitude  and  the 
meaning  were  not  at  once  obvious.  The  motor  itself  must 
be  designed  from  the  ground  up;  a  system  of  polyphase 
generation  and  transmission  must  be  created;  some  fre- 
quency lower  than  133  cycles  per  second  must  be  agreed 
upon  by  engineers,  manufacturers,  and  users.  Phase  and 
frequency  will  be  considered  when  we  take  up  the  Chicago 
World's  Fair  and  Niagara  Falls  episodes;  now  we  shall 
speak  of  the  development  of  the  induction  motor. 

The  story  of  the  induction  motor  is  one  of  the  great  and 


THE  INDUCTION  MOTOR  123 

splendid  chapters  in  electrical  history,  but  it  cannot  be  writ- 
ten here.  It  would  take  us  into  deep  waters  of  physical 
science  and  mechanical  art  and  it  would  require  space  be- 
yond the  plan  and  scope  of  this  book.  The  subject  has 
attracted  analytical  and  mathematical  writers  who  have 
produced  a  copious  literature  which  can  be  enjoyed  only 
by  those  who  have  considerable  gifts  to  start  with,  and  who 
have  had  a  special  training.  The  writer  has  a  friend  who 
at  the  age  of  seventy-one  still  carries  a  heavy  administra- 
tive load  and  works  incessantly.  When  asked  how  he 
amused  himself  he  said:  "Often  of  an  evening  I  read  some 
pure  mathematics."  It  is  not  to  be  assumed  that  many 
readers  of  this  book  have  the  background  for  that  kind  of 
amusement. 

The  induction  motor  and  the  rotary  converter  made  pos- 
sible the  prodigious  development  of  the  alternating-current 
system,  which  has  profoundly  influenced  the  direction  and 
advance  of  industry  and  transportation  the  world  over. 
These  two  machines  had  their  earliest  practical  develop- 
ment in  the  Westinghouse  Works,  and  engineers  still  active 
there,  who  saw  the  beginning,  have  seen  the  induction  motor 
grow  from  little  experiments  to  machines  of  23,000  horse- 
power. We  may  doubt  if  even  the  imagination  of  Westing- 
house  foresaw  such  things  in  1888  when  he  bought  the 
Tesla  rights. 

The  reader  should  not  get  the  impression  that  Westing- 
house  contributed  much  as  an  engineer  or  as  an  inventor 
to  the  induction  motor.  He  did  not.  He  did  contribute 
imagination,  courage,  and  force  of  character.  It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  suggest  which  was  the  greater  contribution. 
Sir  James  Fitz  James  Stephen,  in  one  of  his  delightful  essays, 
now  forgotten  by  most  men,  says:  "The  real  greatness  of 
Newton's  achievement  was  not  that  he  did  a  very  hard 


124  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

sum  and  did  it  right,  but  that  he  had  an  imagination  so 
powerful  that  he  could  conceive  the  possibility  of  devising 
a  classification  which  should  fit  the  motions  of  all  heavy 
bodies  whatever,  from  a  sun  to  an  apple."  The  hard  sum 
was  done  by  the  man  who  discovered  a  new  planet  by  mathe- 
matical analysis  of  the  phenomena  of  the  known  planetary 
system.  Astronomers  know  the  name  of  Adams  and  admire 
his  deed;  Newton  is  one  of  the  immortals. 

The  first  three  years  of  work  on  the  induction  motor  were 
mostly  valuable  in  showing  what  could  not  be  done.  The 
engineers  played  a  losing  game  against  high  frequency  and 
single  phase,  and  they  simply  developed  something  that 
could  not  be  used  until  standards  of  phase  and  frequency 
were  changed.  Moreover,  certain  necessary  knowledge  of 
motor  construction  was  not  in  existence,  and  the  engineers 
started  with  some  wrong  fundamental  conceptions. 

In  1890  and  1891  a  direct-current  motor  was  developed 
in  the  Westinghouse  Works  which  had  a  great  effect  on  the 
advance  of  railway  work.  This  was  the  single  reduction- 
gear  motor,  of  which  some  account  will  be  given  when  we 
come  to  speak  of  electric  traction.  A  new  feature  of  this 
railway  motor,  the  slotted  armature,  was  found  to  be  suited 
to  alternating-current  work.  The  results  which  followed 
led  to  the  analytical  calculation  of  a  new  kind  of  induction- 
motor,  Stephen's  "hard  sum,"  and  an  experimental  motor 
was  built  and  turned  out  to  be  the  first  motor  of  the  modern 
type  constructed  by  anybody.  By  the  middle  of  1893  a 
group  of  low-frequency,  polyphase  apparatus  was  built  for 
the  Chicago  World's  Fair  and  the  way  was  now  reasonably 
clear,  but  the  induction  motor  was  not  yet  commercial. 
This  World's  Fair  installation  was  a  great  event  in  the  story 
of  the  electric  art  and  it  will  be  described  later  at  some 
length. 


THE  TYPE  B  MOTOR  125 

By  this  time  it  was  well  recognized  that  the  immediate 
need  was  for  polyphase  supply  circuits.  In  a  conference 
between  Westinghouse  and  his  engineers  on  the  polyphase 
situation  in  general,  and  induction  motors  in  particular, 
the  question  was  considered  as  to  how  to  approach  the  in- 
duction motor  development  from  the  commercial  stand- 
point. The  suggestion  was  put  forward  that  if  a  fad  were 
made  of  polyphase  generation  and  the  country  filled  with 
polyphase  circuits,  the  motor  situation  would  take  care  of 
itself.  Orders  were  issued  at  once  to  bring  out  a  line  of 
sixty-cycle  polyphase  alternators,  which  the  company  was 
to  push  in  place  of  the  single  phase.  This  was  done  and  the 
public  accepted  the  polyphase  quite  quickly;  in  fact,  so 
quickly  that  the  resulting  demand  for  induction  motors  to 
use  on  these  polyphase  circuits  came  before  the  motors  were 
ready.  In  consequence,  a  line  of  motors,  which  was  being 
planned,  was  rushed  on  the  market  with  all  possible  speed. 
This  motor  was  known  as  the  Westinghouse  type  B,  a  col- 
lector-ring type  of  machine  with  starting  resistance.  In 
spite  of  the  speed  with  which  it  was  got  out,  it  was  quite 
successful,  and  some  of  these  motors  are  operating  even 
today,  after  twenty-five  years'  service.  The  induction 
motor  had  changed  from  an  experimental  machine  in  1893 
to  a  commercial  machine  in  about  two  years'  time.  Indus- 
trial plants  were  buying  polyphase  generating  equipment 
and  induction  motors  for  changing  over  to  electric  drive. 

During  this  time  the  General  Electric  Company  had  also 
been  developing  induction  motors.  On  account  of  the  Tesla 
patents,  however,  that  company  got  out  a  new  system  called 
the  "monocyclic,"  which  they  claimed  was  really  a  single- 
phase  system  and  which,  their  engineers  insisted,  avoided 
the  Tesla  polyphase  patents.  This  monocyclic  system 
consisted,  primarily,  of  a  main  circuit  and  a  "teaser"  cir- 


126  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

cuit,  the  latter  principally  for  the  purpose  of  furnishing 
the  polyphase  excitation.  This  system  was  fundamentally 
an  unbalanced  polyphase  system,  and  the  Westinghouse 
Company  always  claimed  that  it  was  an  infringement. 
Probably  if  it  had  gone  through  the  courts  it  would  have 
been  declared  to  be  an  infringement,  but  the  two  companies 
made  their  well-known  patent  agreement,  and  the  induction- 
motor  patents  were  covered  by  the  cross-licenses  between 
the  two  companies,  and  the  General  Electric  Company  was 
able  to  take  up  the  straight  polyphase  system.  This  com- 
pany developed  the  induction  motor  in  parallel  with  the 
Westinghouse  Company,  although  their  constructions  were 
quite  different  in  many  ways.  Both  types  of  motors,  how- 
ever, were  considered  thoroughly  successful. 

The  motor  of  1895  was  hardly  settled  as  standard  when 
a  revolution  came  with  the  introduction  of  the  type  C 
motor.  The  characteristics  of  this  motor  were  materially 
different  from  those  of  the  motors  in  use  and  it  was  much 
criticised,  even  inside  the  Westinghouse  organization.  The 
engineers  and  salesmen  of  competing  companies  adopted 
a  general  formula  of  disfavor.  "It  is  as  bad  as  the  West- 
inghouse type  C  motor."  This  new  contrivance  was  said 
to  rest  on  a  fundamental  absurdity;  namely,  its  starting 
torque  was  "necessarily  small,"  but  the  designer  had  in- 
troduced an  autotransformer  to  reduce  the  torque  during 
starting.  The  absurdity  was  as  obvious  to  the  sceptics  as 
the  multiplication  table.  But,  like  Whistler's  pictures, 
"the  stuff  sold,"  and  presently  competing  companies  began 
to  put  more  or  less  accurate  copies  on  the  market.  The 
Westinghouse  type  C  motor  soon  became  the  preferred  type, 
and  eventually  took  a  prominent  place  in  Europe.  It 
advanced  the  induction-motor  business  enormously  and 
created  a  reputation  for  reliability  and  durability  of  the 


ANALYSIS  AND  DESIGN  127 

induction  motor,  compared  with  the  direct  current,  which 
placed  the  alternating  motor  far  ahead  of  the  direct  cur- 
rent for  general  industrial  purposes. 

Engineers  will  be  interested  in  Mr.  Lamme's  short  state- 
ment of  the  beginnings  of  this  one  element  in  the  growth  of 
the  art.  "In  developing  the  various  Westinghouse  motors 
which  were  under  my  charge,  I  had  gone  quite  deeply  into 
the  analysis  (that  is,  deeply  for  those  days).  In  working 
out  the  various  conditions  upon  which  the  starting  torque 
depended,  I  uncovered  what  seemed  to  me  to  be  some  hither- 
to unrecognized  conditions  in  the  construction,  which,  if 
carried  far  enough,  would  allow  a  very  great  simplification 
of  the  motor  itself.  In  working  out  the  characteristic  curves 
of  the  motor  I  found  that  if  I  could  reduce  the  motor  re- 
actance to  a  certain  point,  I  could  make  it  develop  relatively 
high  starting  torques,  with  a  pure  'cage-type'  winding  on 
the  secondary,  the  simplest  type  of  winding  possible.  Here- 
tofore, it  had  been  believed,  very  generally,  that  the  cage 
type  of  induction  motor  necessarily  had  poor  starting  torque. 
My  analysis  of  the  reactance  and  other  conditions  indicated 
that  I  could  get  any  starting  torque  I  pleased  by  properly 
reducing  the  reactance.  Others  may  have  recognized  this 
same  thing,  but  did  not  know  that  the  reactance  actually 
could  be  reduced  sufficiently,  in  a  motor  of  commercial 
proportions.  My  calculations  of  my  former  designs  had 
shown  me  how  to  reduce  such  reactance  to  almost  any  de- 
sired value.  In  consequence,  I  figured  out  certain  motors 
with  a  view  to  making  them  two  or  three  times  full  load 
starting  torque  with  less  expensive  constructions  than  the 
then  existing  types.  However,  the  figures  also  showed  that 
such  motors  would  take  very  large  starting  currents.  This 
immediately  led  to  the  idea  of  introducing  a  small  auto- 
transformer  at  start  for  reducing  the  voltage,  and,  con- 


128  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

sequently,  the  starting  current.  Mr.  Schmid  was  quite  in 
sympathy  with  this  scheme  for  simplifying  the  motor,  and 
he  authorized  the  construction  of  several  sizes.  In  fact, 
several  of  these  motors  were  sold  for  operating  cranes  be- 
fore the  first  ones  were  completed,  the  speed  control  on 
these  first  motors  being  obtained  by  varying  the  voltage 
supplied  to  them.  However,  when  the  motors  came  through, 
the  tests  bore  out  all  the  calculations,  and  this  construction 
was  very  quickly  put  on  the  market." 

It  may  not  be  impertinent  to  suggest  that  this  is  a  pretty 
instance  of  the  application  of  two  of  the  qualities  of  the 
complete  engineer — the  gift  of  seeing  things  and  the  power 
to  do  a  hard  sum. 

THE  ALTERNATING-CURRENT  METER 

The  alternating-current  motor  was  provided  as  is  told 
above,  but  no  instrument  existed  to  measure  the  quantity 
of  current  supplied  to  the  user.  Westinghouse  took  this 
matter  up  personally,  and  in  June  1887  he  applied  for  a 
patent  on  an  alternating-current  meter.  In  October  he 
filed  another  application  jointly  with  one  of  his  engineers, 
Philip  Lange.  Patents  were  issued  in  May  1888.  This 
meter  would  have  served  very  well  if  a  better  one  had  not 
been  devised.  That  soon  came  in  a  most  interesting  and 
important  invention  by  0.  B.  Shallenberger,  chief  elec- 
trician of  the  company.  No  doubt  his  mind  was  pretty 
well  saturated  with  the  problem  when  an  accident  gave 
the  slight  agitation  which  crystallized  the  invention. 

Late  in  April  1888  Shallenberger  was  examining  an 
alternating-current  arc  lamp  which  had  just  been  com- 
pleted under  the  direction  of  Lange.  By  chance  a  small 
coil  spring  got  loose  from  the  mechanism  and  lodged  on  a 
plate  at  the  top  of  a  coil  surrounding  a  protruding  soft-iron 


THE  INDUCTION  METER  129 

core.  Lange  was  about  to  replace  the  part,  when  Shallen- 
berger  noticed  a  slight  movement  of  the  spring,  which  was 
unaccounted  for.  By  analyzing  the  influences  he  discovered 
that  the  spring  was  being  subjected  to  a  shifting  magnetic 
field.  Directly  he  said  to  his  assistant  Stillwell,  who  also 
was  present,  and  to  Lange:  "There's  a  meter  in  that  and 
perhaps  a  motor."  Within  two  weeks  he  designed  and 
built  a  most  successful  alternating-current  meter  of  the 
induction  type,  and  within  a  few  months  these  were  being 
produced  in  quantity. 

Although  this  meter  operates  on  the  same  fundamental 
principle  as  the  Tesla  motor,  neither  Shallenberger  nor  the 
public  had  knowledge  of  Tesla's  work  till  some  days  later. 
Shallenberger  had  thus  independently  invented  a  form  of 
induction  motor.  It  should  be  added  that  Tesla  on 
learning  the  facts  not  only  added  his  congratulations  to 
Shallenberger  on  his  skill  in  devising  the  meter  but  ex- 
pressed sympathy  in  the  natural  disappointment  which 
came  to  Shallenberger  on  finding  that  he  was  anticipated 
by  Tesla  in  the  invention  of  the  motor  itself.  Another  in- 
cident is  worthy  of  note  as  illustrating  how  different  minds 
in  widely  different  localities  independently  think  along 
like  lines.  Within  a  day  or  two  after  Shallenberger's  con- 
ception in  Pittsburgh,  Galileo  Ferraris  in  Turin  published 
a  lecture  which  he  had  delivered  to  his  class  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Turin  as  early  as  1885,  describing  a  like  form  of 
alternating-current  motor.  These  occurrences  were  in  the 
latter  part  of  April  1888,  and  Tesla's  patents  then  pending 
in  the  Patent  Office  at  Washington  were  issued  May  1, 
1888. 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE  ROTARY  CONVERTER 

THE  story  of  the  development  of  the  transformer  has 
been  told  in  earlier  pages  and  told  at  some  length  because 
of  its  immense  importance  in  the  electric  art.  It  is  now 
well  understood  that  the  transformer  is  an  instrument  for 
changing  the  voltages  of  alternating  current,  and  so  making 
the  current  transmitted  at  one  potential  available  for  use 
at  another  potential.  It  is  a  fundamental  tool  and  has  made 
possible  the  prodigious  development  of  the  use  of  electricity 
in  the  last  quarter  of  a  century.  But  the  transformer  was 
not  enough.  To  transmit  electric  energy  over  considerable 
distances,  high-potential  alternating  current  must  be  used; 
but  there  are  many  important  uses  for  direct  current  which 
alternating  current  does  not  meet.  Moreover,  in  the  dawn 
of  the  alternating-current  art  there  were  great  investments 
in  direct-current  motors  which  would  be  sacrificed  reluc- 
tantly, if  at  all.  For  example,  all  electric  railway  work 
was  then  direct  current.  The  economic  distance  to  which 
direct  current  could  be  carried  had  not  yet  been  fixed;  but 
it  was  already  clear  to  the  seeing  eye  that  a  great  extension 
of  electric  railroads  would  demand  numerous  power  stations 
to  keep  the  generation  of  power  within  practicable  distance 
from  its  work  if  direct  current  were  used.  The  same  set 
of  facts  was  met  in  electric  lighting  and  in  various  minor 
uses  of  electric  energy.  So  arose  the  problem  of  transmit- 
ting energy  by  high-potential  alternating  current  and  con- 
verting it  for  use  into  low-potential  direct  current.  This 
situation  faced  Westinghouse  and  his  engineers,  to  com- 

130 


THE  ROTARY  CONVERTER  131 

plicate  the  negotiations  and  designs  for  the  hydroelectric 
project  at  Niagara  Falls. 

The  consideration  of  the  Niagara  project  by  Westing- 
house  began  in  1890.  The  serious  and  active  consideration 
at  East  Pittsburgh  of  alternating-current-direct-current  con- 
verters, to  change  alternating  current  into  direct  current, 
began  a  little  earlier.  This  was  pioneer  work.  It  was  the 
beginning  of  a  course  of  research,  invention,  design,  and 
manufacture  which  has  had,  and  still  has,  great  effect  on 
the  use  of  electric  power  in  transportation,  manufacture, 
and  the  arts.  The  motor-generator  was  already  known  and 
used  to  convert  alternating  current  to  direct  current;  but 
the  rotary  converter  promised  greater  economy  and  effi- 
ciency, and  that  promise  gave  direction  to  the  development 
at  the  Westinghouse  Works.  The  successful  demonstration 
of  a  rotary  converter  made  at  the  works,  before  the  en- 
gineers of  the  Niagara  commission,  was  an  important  in- 
fluence in  the  decision  to  adopt  alternating  current  at 
Niagara.  That  decision  fixed  the  direction  of  electrical 
development  for  all  time.  It  was  a  landmark  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  manufacture  of  power. 

The  conception  of  the  rotary  converter,  so  timely  in  its 
coming  and  of  such  continuing  value,  seems  to  have  entered 
the  minds  of  several  people  at  about  the  same  time,  as  gen- 
erally happens  in  inventions.  A  rotary  converter  was  shown 
by  Siemens  &  Halske  at  the  Frankfort  Exposition  in  1891. 
We  do  not  know  when  the  studies  for  that  machine  began. 
In  May  1887  Mr.  Charles  S.  Bradley  filed  an  application 
for  a  United  States  patent  on  a  rotary  converter  and  in 
October  1888,  a  patent  was  issued  to  him.  In  the  late 
eighties,  Mr.  B.  G.  Lamme,  of  the  Westinghouse  Electric 
Company  (now  Chief  Engineer),  began  studies  in  the  same 
field  and  in  course  of  time  he  worked  out  design  specifica- 


132  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

tions  for  an  operative  apparatus.  Until  he  encountered 
Bradley  in  the  Patent  Office  he  believed  that  he  had  made 
a  new  invention.  He  has  been  more  persistent  and  resource- 
ful than  any  other  man  in  the  development  of  the  rotary 
converter,  and  in  the  Westinghouse  shops  it  first  became  a 
real  working  element  in  the  structure  of  the  art.  A  375- 
kilowatt  rotary  was  shown  in  the  Westinghouse  exhibit  at 
the  Chicago  World's  Fair  in  1893,  and  when  we  come  to 
read  of  the  first  hydroelectric  plant  at  Niagara  Falls  we 
shall  see  the  place  that  it  had  in  that  tremendous  historical 
enterprise.  We  may  apply  here  Carnot's  rule:  "The  honor 
of  a  discovery  belongs  to  the  nation  in  which  it  has  acquired 
its  growth  and  all  its  development."  The  same  may  be 
applied  in  distributing  honors  amongst  men  as  well  as  na- 
tions. 

In  a  few  years  after  the  rotary  was  first  put  on  the  mar- 
ket as  a  commercial  machine  it  had  practically  driven  the 
large  direct-current  generators  out  of  business.  The  first 
rotary  converters  were  put  in  service  about  1894.  By  1899 
electrification  of  the  Manhattan  Elevated  Railway  in  New 
York  was  decided  upon,  with  one  huge  alternating-current- 
generator  station  and  with  twenty-six  1500-kilowatt  ro- 
tary converters,  in  a  large  number  of  substations,  for  sup- 
plying direct  current  for  operation  of  the  cars.  This  one 
contract  for  converting  machinery  was  larger  than  any 
single  contract  for  direct-current  generator  machinery  that 
had  yet  been  undertaken,  showing  that,  even  at  this  early 
date,  the  alternating-current  generating  system  combined 
with  the  rotary  converters  had  already  forged  ahead  of  the 
direct-current  generating  system  for  railway  work.  The 
same  held  true  for  many  of  the  large  three-wire  Edison  sys- 
tems, where  the  handicap  of  transmission  at  220  volts  for 
supply  was  felt  very  early,  and  the  advent  of  the  rotary  con- 


THE  ROTARY  CONVERTER  133 

verier  permitted  generation  and  transmission  by  high-volt- 
age alternating  current,  and  thus  allowed  great  extensions 
of  the  three-wire  system  by  means  of  suitable  distributing 
substations  with  rotary  converters.  All  this  means  that 
within  a  period  of,  say,  five  years  the  source  of  direct  current, 
for  large  plants  in  particular,  had  shifted  from  direct-current 
generation  at  low  voltage  to  alternating-current  generation 
at  comparatively  high  voltage,  with  transmission  at  high 
voltage  and  with  conversion,  by  means  of  the  rotary  con- 
verter, to  any  desired  direct-current  voltage  at  any  desired 
place.  Surely  this  was  revolutionary. 

It  does  not  appear  that  Westinghouse  had  much  personal 
part  in  the  early  studies  of  the  converter.  Mr.  Lamme 
says:  "Strangely  enough,  it  appeared  to  me  that  Mr.  West- 
inghouse never  took  any  strong  interest  in  the  rotary  con- 
verter as  affording  a  means  for  extending  the  field  of  direct- 
current  traction,  and  yet  this  has  been  possibly  the  greatest 
single  step  in  overcoming  the  early  limitations  of  the  600- 
volt  system.  He  did  not  ask  me  many  questions  regard- 
ing rotary-converter  development  and  operation,  as  he  did 
with  other  developments.  He  seemed  quite  pleased  with 
the  success  of  the  rotary  and  its  rapid  growth  after  it  had 
passed  through  its  earlier  experimental  stages."  Perhaps 
he  took  it  as  a  matter  of  course,  as  an  inevitable  step.  Per- 
haps he  was  satisfied  that  it  was  in  competent  hands.  Per- 
haps there  was  a  small  and  passing  dark  spot  in  his  imag- 
ination just  here.  Or  perhaps  it  was  something  of  all  three. 
For  present  purposes  the  essential  things  are  that  the  com- 
ing of  the  rotary  converter  was  an  opportune  event  in  the 
course  of  the  growth  of  the  universal  power  system,  the 
conception  of  which  was  steadily  forming  in  Westinghouse's 
mind;  and  this  event  took  place  within  the  organization 
which  he  had  built  up. 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  CHICAGO  WORLD'S  FAIR 

THE  Columbian  Exposition  at  Chicago  in  1893  was  an 
interesting  incident  in  the  life  of  George  Westinghouse  and 
in  the  history  of  the  Westinghouse  Electric  Company,  and 
there  were  picturesque,  not  to  say  dramatic,  situations, 
which  brought  out  daring  and  resource.  A  certain  shrewd 
university  president  said  that  we  must  think  of  arctic  ex- 
ploration as  a  high  form  of  sport.  There  was  some  high 
sport  in  this  World's  Fair  adventure. 

On  May  23,  1892,  the  Westinghouse  Company  took  the 
lighting  contract  at  a  price  much  below  the  bid  made  on 
behalf  of  the  Edison  General  Electric  Company,  its  only 
serious  competitor.  The  story  is  that  the  saving  to  the 
Exposition  Company  was  something  like  $1,000,000,  which 
may  well  have  been,  as  the  unit  prices  were  about  as  one 
to  three.  The  Edison  General  Electric  Company  counted 
on  its  strong  patent  situation,  and  Westinghouse  set  high 
value  on  the  advertising  element.  His  company  lost  money 
directly,  but  its  technical  success  had  a  great  effect  on  the 
Niagara  Falls  contract  then  pending,  and  on  the  whole 
struggle  between  direct  current  and  alternating  current, 
and  it  is  hard  to  exaggerate  the  world  importance  of  that 
struggle. 

This  exposition  was  one  of  the  famous  world's  fairs,  in 
the  supreme  beauty  of  buildings  and  grounds,  in  the  num- 
ber and  variety  of  exhibits  drawn  from  all  the  world,  and 
in  the  number  of  visitors.  Never  before  had  so  much  arti- 

134 


THE  WORLD'S  FAIR  CONTRACT  135 

ficial  light  been  produced  in  one  place,  and  it  was  beauti- 
fully used  to  emphasize  architectural  effects.  It  was  a  stra- 
tegic opportunity  which  Westinghouse  and  his  engineers 
seized  and  used.  The  lighting  was  only  a  part  of  their  ex- 
hibit. The  new  machinery,  apparatus,  and  methods  were 
more  impressive  to  the  scientific  visitor  than  the  picturesque 
effects.  The  appeal  to  the  scientific  imagination  was  power- 
ful; the  demonstration  was  complete  to  those  who  knew 
enough  to  understand  it. 

It  had  not  been  easy  to  get  this  contract,  notwithstand- 
ing the  great  difference  in  the  bids.  The  patent  situation 
was  dangerous,  and  when  bids  were  first  invited  Westing- 
house  refused  to  submit  one.  Finally,  he  became  interested 
in  a  bid  which  the  Exposition  Committee  on  Grounds  and 
Buildings  had  refused  to  consider,  as  the  bidder  was  ob- 
viously not  in  a  position  to  carry  it  out.  With  a  rejected 
bid  as  a  basis  and  with  an  obviously  strong  patent  in  the 
way,  he  began  negotiations  rather  heavily  handicapped. 
His  frank  and  genial  manner,  no  less  than  his  ingenious 
arguments,  gradually  won  the  committee;  but  before  that 
he  had  won  over  the  Chicago  newspapers,  which  became 
insistent  that  Westinghouse  should  have  consideration.  The 
upshot  was  that  new  bids  were  asked  for  and  the  West- 
inghouse Company  got  the  contract. 

The  patent  situation  in  which  the  Edison  General  Elec- 
tric Company  had  well-grounded  confidence  may  be  ex- 
plained in  a  few  words.  Suit  was  brought  on  an  Edison 
patent.  The  first  claim  was  very  broad,  for  the  combination 
of  a  carbon  filament  with  an  exhausted  glass  globe.  This 
claim  was  not  sustained  by  the  court. 

The  second  claim  was  narrower,  for  a  globe  "made  en- 
tirely of  glass."  The  context  of  the  specification  showed 
this  to  mean  a  globe  made  in  one  piece  with  the  glass  fused 


136  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

on  to  the  leading-in  wires.  This  is  the  type  of  lamp  now 
in  universal  use.  It  is  as  familiar  to  us  as  was  the  tallow 
candle  to  our  grandfathers.  It  was  one  of  Mr.  Edison's 
most  fortunate  inventions.  The  court  sustained  this  claim 
and  refused  to  require  the  Edison  Company  to  license  the 
Westinghouse  Company  or  to  sell  lamps  to  them.  Pro- 
ceedings were  begun  to  get  an  injunction  which  would  re- 
strain the  Westinghouse  Company  from  making  a  lamp 
which  was  in  course  of  development.  The  story  goes  that 
one  evening  in  New  York,  Westinghouse  and  Mr.  Terry,  of 
the  legal  department  of  the  Electric  Company,  took  an  up- 
town train  on  the  Elevated  Railway  and  found  themselves 
seated  by  Mr.  Lowrey,  chief  counsel  of  the  Edison  Com- 
pany. In  course  of  casual  talk  Lowrey  said  that  Mr.  Fish, 
also  of  counsel  for  Edison,  had  gone  to  Pittsburgh.  West- 
inghouse and  Terry  soon  left  the  train,  and  when  they  were 
out  of  hearing  Westinghouse  said:  "What's  Fish  gone  to 
Pittsburgh  for?"  The  immediate  result  was  that  Terry 
hunted  up  Curtis  (another  of  the  Westinghouse  patent  at- 
torneys) at  his  home  in  the  suburbs;  Curtis  wired  Christy 
in  Pittsburgh,  and  the  next  morning  when  Fish  entered 
the  court  room  he  found  Christy  seated  there.  The  further 
result  was  that  the  Edison  Company's  application  for  a 
restraining  order  was  denied. 

Nevertheless,  matters  were  critical,  not  to  say  dangerous. 
The  Westinghouse  Company  was  committed  to  the  con- 
tract for  lighting  the  Chicago  World's  Fair.  It  had  already 
equipped  many  plants  which  must  have  lamps  for  renewals. 
Unless  a  non-infringing  lamp  could  be  furnished,  the  com- 
pany could  sell  no  more  incandescent-lighting  material. 
The  need  for  such  a  lamp  was  immediate  and  urgent. 

The  events  here  related  took  place  in  1892.  In  1888  the 
Westinghouse  Company  had  come  into  possession  of  a  Saw- 


THE  STOPPER  LAMP  137 

yer-Man  lamp  patent,  for  which  application  had  been  filed 
in  1880 — a  good  patent  so  far  as  it  went.  As  early  as  1891, 
perhaps  earlier,  the  Westinghouse  engineers  were  working 
on  a  two-piece  Sawyer-Man  lamp — that  is,  a  lamp  in  which 
the  part  holding  the  wires  was  put  in  the  globe  and  the 
opening  was  sealed  as  the  air  in  the  globe  was  exhausted. 
This  was  the  lamp  which  by  the  ruling  of  the  court  did  not 
infringe  the  Edison  patent.  Just  when  the  seal  was  changed 
to  a  glass  stopper  ground  in,  it  is  impossible  to  say,  but 
some  time  before  the  World's  Fair  contract  was  a  matter 
of  negotiation  Westinghouse  was  pushing  work  on  a  two- 
piece  lamp  as  a  precaution.  Thus  originated  the  famous 
Westinghouse  "stopper-lamp,"  a  kind  of  lamp  which  other 
men  had  tried  to  make  and  failed.  It  was  not  at  all  clear 
that  it  could  be  made  to  hold  a  high  vacuum  for  long,  and 
as  things  turned  out,  it  could  not,  and  the  World's  Fair 
lamps  had  to  be  often  renewed.  But  the  emergency  lamp 
was  good  enough  to  light  the  World's  Fair  and  to  supply 
other  needs  until  the  Edison  patent  expired. 

It  was  not  enough  to  have  designed  an  emergency  lamp. 
It  is  usually  a  long  way  from  design  to  large-scale  manu- 
facture. Details  must  be  designed  and  experimented  with. 
Small  tools  must  be  made.  In  this  case  facilities  must  be 
created  to  produce  within  a  very  few  months  250,000  lamps 
for  the  Fair  and  to  supply  a  reliable  stream  of  replacements 
for  that  and  for  other  lighting  plants.  Westinghouse  organ- 
ized a  glass  factory  to  make  the  bulbs.  He  designed  and 
made  apparatus  to  grind  in  the  stoppers  and  an  air  pump 
to  exhaust  the  bulbs.  It  was  a  quick  job,  but  the  opening 
of  the  Fair  on  May  1  following  was  not  delayed  an  hour. 
In  this  emergency  Westinghouse  was  well  served  by  his 
patent  lawyers  and  his  engineers.  Particularly  should  be 
mentioned  the  late  Mr.  Thomas  B.  Kerr,  for  many  years 


138  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

an  aole  and  faithful  adviser  in  patent  matters,  and  Mr. 
Leonard  E.  Curtis,  who  practised  for  years  in  electrical 
patents  and  so  helped  to  advance  the  art.  Amongst  the 
several  excellent  engineers  who  took  part  in  this  lamp  de- 
velopment, one  name  stands  out  conspicuously,  that  of 
Frank  Stuart  Smith,  then  in  charge  of  the  incandescent- 
lamp  department.  His  zeal,  industry,  and  ingenuity  were 
highly  appreciated  by  Westinghouse.  But  it  was  essen- 
tially one  man's  job,  and  it  was  perhaps  the  most  audacious 
of  the  many  daring  enterprises  of  Westinghouse.  He  won 
by  those  qualities  which  we  often  think  would  have  made 
him  a  brilliant  general  if  fate  had  turned  his  lot  that  way. 

But  this  spectacular  lamp  episode,  interesting  and  use- 
ful to  the  student  of  George  Westinghouse,  was,  after  all, 
only  an  episode.  In  itself  it  had  no  lasting  consequences. 
The  historical  element  in  the  Westinghouse  participation 
in  this  Chicago  World's  Fair  was  hidden  away  in  the  ma- 
chinery; hidden  away  from  all  but  a  few  seeing  eyes.  They 
could  see  there  the  faint  dawn  of  a  new  era;  that  is,  they 
could  see  it  if  they  had  enough  knowledge  and  imagination. 
Here  was  taken  one  of  the  first  long  steps  in  the  use  of  the 
alternating  current,  to  be  followed  shortly  by  Niagara,  of 
which  we  shall  speak  presently. 

The  generating  plant  for  the  World's  Fair  lighting  was 
the  largest  alternating-current  central  station  then  in  exist- 
ence. There  were  12  generators,  each  of  1000  horsepower, 
each  unit  was  two  500-horsepower  alternators.  These 
were  single  phase,  with  toothed,  rotating  armatures,  and 
were  placed  side  by  side,  with  separate  fields.  The  field- 
poles  were  in  line  with  each  other,  but  the  two  armatures 
were  displaced  half  one-tooth  pitch  from  each  other.  There- 
fore each  unit  consisted  of  two  single-phase  rotating-arma- 
ture  generators,  but  with  the  two  circuits  90  degrees  out 


EXHIBITS  AT  THE  WORLD'S  FAIR  139 

of  phase.  Westinghouse  proposed  this  scheme  in  order  to 
be  able  to  supply  two-phase  current.  These  machines  were 
200  revolution,  36  pole,  7200  alternations  (60  cycles).  The 
nominal  voltage  was  2200.  The  rotating  armature,  toothed- 
armature  construction  and  60  cycles  were  both  old  features, 
but  the  displacement  of  the  armature  to  give  two  phase 
was  a  new  feature,  and  in  fact  these  were  the  first  large 
polyphase  generators  built  and  installed  in  this  country. 
Furthermore,  these  were  the  largest  alternators  either  single 
phase  or  polyphase  that  had  been  built  up  to  that  time  in 
America.  Ganz  &  Company,  at  Budapesth,  had  built  1000- 
horsepower  alternators,  single  phase.  The  General  Elec- 
tric Company  showed  at  the  Fair  a  1500-kilowatt  direct- 
current  generator,  and  the  Westinghouse  Company  was 
building  1500-horsepower  direct-current  machines. 

Quite  apart  from  the  lighting  plant,  the  Westinghouse 
Company  showed  at  the  World's  Fair  a  complete  polyphase 
system.  A  large  two-phase  induction  motor,  driven  by  cur- 
rent from  the  main  generators,  acted  as  the  prime  mover 
in  driving  the  exhibit.  The  exhibit,  then,  contained  a 
polyphase  generator  with  transformers  for  raising  the  volt- 
age for  transmission;  a  short  transmission  line;  transform- 
ers for  lowering  the  voltage;  the  operation  of  induction 
motors;  a  synchronous  motor;  and  a  rotary  converter  which 
supplied  direct  current,  which  in  turn  operated  a  railway 
motor.  In  connection  with  the  exhibit  were  meters  and 
other  auxiliary  devices  of  various  kinds.  The  apparatus 
was  in  units  of  fair  commercial  size  and  gave  to  the  public 
a  view  of  a  universal  power  system  in  which,  by  polyphase 
current,  power  could  be  transmitted  great  distances,  and 
then  be  utilized  for  various  purposes,  including  the  supply 
of  direct  current.  It  showed  on  a  working  scale  a  system 
upon  which  Westinghouse  and  his  company  had  been  con- 


140  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

centrating  their  efforts;    namely,  the  alternating-current 
and  polyphase  system. 

It  has  been  maintained  with  some  plausibility  that  the 
most  important  outcome  of  the  Centennial  Exposition  of 
1876  was  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  there  dis- 
covered bread.  So  it  may  be  maintained,  with  even  more 
plausibility,  that  the  best  result  of  the  Columbian  Exposi- 
tion of  1893  was  that  it  removed  the  last  serious  doubt  of 
the  usefulness  to  mankind  of  the  polyphase  alternating 
current.  The  conclusive  demonstration  at  Niagara  was 
yet  to  be  made,  but  the  World's  Fair  clinched  the  fact  that 
it  would  be  made,  and  so  it  marked  an  epoch  in  industrial 
history.  Very  few  of  those  who  looked  at  this  machinery, 
who  gazed  with  admiration  at  the  great  switchboard,  so 
ingenious  and  complete,  and  who  saw  the  beautiful  light- 
ing effects  could  have  realized  that  they  were  living  in  an 
historical  moment,  that  they  were  looking  at  the  begin- 
nings of  a  revolution. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
NIAGARA  FALLS 

LATE  in  the  eighties  a  local  project  for  the  development 
of  power  at  Niagara  Falls  began  to  take  definite  shape,  but 
the  necessary  money  could  not  be  raised  locally  and  the 
enterprise  soon  went  to  New  York  and  was  taken  up  by  a 
group,  amongst  whom  were  Mr.  D.  0.  Mills,  Mr.  John  Jacob 
Astor,  Mr.  Edward  D.  Adams,  Mr.  Francis  Lynde  Stetson, 
and  Mr.  Edward  A.  Wickes.  The  Cataract  Construction 
Company  was  created  and  Mr.  Adams  became  its  President. 
Doctor  Coleman  Sellers,  of  Philadelphia,  was  appointed 
Chief  Engineer.  In  1889  Mr.  Adams  and  Doctor  Sellers 
went  to  Europe  to  observe  hydraulic  developments  and 
methods  of  transmitting  power.  There  as  well  as  at  home 
they  made  a  broad  study  of  methods  of  power  development 
and  utilization  that  might  be  adapted  to  the  Niagara  situa- 
tion, calling  to  their  aid  some  of  the  most  eminent  physicists 
and  engineers. 

Westinghouse  had  sent  one  of  his  young  engineers,  Mr. 
Lewis  B.  Stillwell,  to  England  that  autumn  to  help  in  the 
start  of  the  British  Westinghouse  Electric  Company  and 
to  inform  himself  on  the  state  of  the  electric  art,  particularly 
the  progress  in  generating  and  distributing  alternating  cur- 
rent there  and  on  the  Continent.  In  November,  Mr.  Still- 
well  and  Mr.  Reginald  Belfield,  electrician  of  the  British 
Westinghouse  Company,  were  asked  to  meet  Mr.  Adams 
and  Doctor  Sellers  and  to  give  their  views  on  the  Niagara 
power  problem,  as  representing  the  Westinghouse  interests. 

141 


142  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOTJSE 

This  was  the  beginning  of  the  relations  of  Westinghouse 
with  the  Niagara  development. 

In  1890  the  Cataract  Construction  Company  appointed 
an  International  Niagara  Commission  to  consider  projects 
and  designs  for  the  utilization  of  power  from  the  falls.  The 
members  of  the  commission  were  Sir  William  Thomson 
(afterward  Lord  Kelvin),  President,  Doctor  Coleman  Sel- 
lers, M.  E.  Mascart,  Colonel  Theodore  Turretini,  and  Pro- 
fessor W.  C.  Unwin,  Secretary.  It  seems  almost  super- 
fluous to  say  more  about  those  gentlemen.  Lord  Kelvin 
was  not  only  one  of  the  most  famous  physicists  in  the  world 
but  an  engineer  of  varied  and  eminent  practical  achieve- 
ment. Doctor  Sellers,  long  associated  as  engineer  and  in- 
ventor with  the  well-known  firm  of  William  Sellers  &  Com- 
pany, of  Philadelphia,  was  also  professor  of  engineering 
practice  at  Stevens  Institute  and  professor  of  mechanics 
at  the  Franklin  Institute.  M.  Mascart  was  member  of 
the  Institute  of  Paris  and  professor  at  the  College  of  France. 
Colonel  Turretini  was  President  of  the  city  of  Geneva, 
Director  of  Works  for  the  Utilization  of  the  Rhone,  etc. 
Professor  William  Cawthorne  Unwin,  of  London,  was  a 
distinguished  physicist,  scholar,  and  author.  The  reader 
of  this  volume  will  not  fail  to  recognize  the  high  authority 
of  these  names.  The  officers  of  the  Cataract  Construc- 
tion Company  were  wise  in  handling  an  enterprise  so  great 
in  cost  and  so  vast  in  its  consequences  in  a  way  to  bring 
to  their  service  the  ability  and  experience  of  so  distin- 
guished a  group  of  scientists  and  engineers. 

Projects  were  invited  for  a  central  hydraulic  power  sta- 
tion to  be  located  above  the  Falls  and  to  develop  as  much 
power  as  the  section  of  the  discharge  tunnel  (490  square 
feet),  the  head  of  water,  and  the  hydraulic  slope  would  per- 
mit, and  for  the  transmission  and  distribution  of  this  power 


NIAGARA  FALLS  PRELIMINARIES  143 

overhead  or  underground  by  electricity,  compressed  air, 
water,  cable,  or  other  means,  to  a  manufacturing  district 
to  be  built  up  within  a  radius  of  four  miles,  and  to  the  city 
of  Buffalo,  distant  about  twenty  miles. 

At  this  time  Mr  Stillwell  was  again  in  London,  and  the 
British  Westinghouse  Company  was  amongst  those  asked 
to  submit  plans.  The  broad  possibilities  of  alternating- 
current  transmission  had  been  realized  by  Westinghouse 
and  his  staff  from  the  time  of  the  purchase  of  the  Gaulard 
and  Gibbs  patents  in  1885,  and  much  work  had  been  done 
at  Pittsburgh  toward  producing  practicable  methods  and 
apparatus.  The  enthusiastic  young  men  in  London  were 
eager  to  have  the  company  enter  into  the  competition  and 
submit  plans,  and  wrote  and  cabled  to  Westinghouse.  He 
refused  permission.  He  evidently  felt  that  the  project  was 
still  much  in  the  air  and  that  his  company  would  not  be 
justified  at  that  time  in  disclosing  comprehensively  the 
results  of  its  studies  and  the  knowledge  gained  at  great 
cost.  Mr.  Stillwell  says:  "My  disappointment  was  great, 
but  I  came  to  realize  the  reasonableness  of  Mr.  Westing- 
house's  view." 

More  than  three  years  passed  before  the  first  order  for 
machinery  for  Niagara  was  placed  with  the  Westinghouse 
Company  and  meantime  important  things  happened.  Those 
were  epoch-making  years  in  the  electric  art,  which  means  that 
they  were  epoch-making  years  in  industrial  history.  Dur- 
ing those  years  the  Cataract  Construction  Company,  upon 
the  advice  of  the  International  Niagara  Commission,  ar- 
rived at  two  decisions  of  far-reaching  importance;  namely, 
that  the  power  should  be  developed  in  a  single  large  power 
plant  and  that  electricity  should  be  used  for  its  transmis- 
sion and  distribution.  When  these  decisions  were  made, 
the  question  whether  alternating  current  or  direct  current 


144  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

should  be  used  was  left  open,  but  after  further  study  and 
investigation  by  the  Commission,  it  was  decided  to  adopt 
the  alternating-current  system.  Unquestionably  the  de- 
cision of  the  Cataract  Company  to  use  alternating  current 
influenced  greatly  the  rapidity  and  direction  of  electrical 
development  throughout  the  world.  Professor  George 
Forbes,  of  Glasgow,  was  amongst  those  who  had  appeared 
before  the  Commission  as  advocates  of  alternating  current, 
and  subsequently  he  was  appointed  Consulting  Electrical 
Engineer  to  the  Cataract  Construction  Company. 

At  Pittsburgh  for  about  two  years,  beginning  in  1890, 
the  development  of  the  polyphase  alternating-current  sys- 
tem was  considerably  retarded  by  financial  difficulties  in 
which  the  Westinghouse  Company  became  involved  through 
lack  of  adequate  capital,  but  nevertheless  research,  design, 
experiment,  and  construction  of  alternating-current  ap- 
paratus went  on.  The  electrical  engineers  of  those  days 
were  all  young,  surprisingly  young,  but  they  were  creating 
a  new  science  and  a  new  art,  the  laws  were  unknown  and 
the  language  was  new,  and  older  engineers  shrank  from  the 
task  of  learning  the  laws  and  language.  Westinghouse, 
however,  had  the  gift  of  youth.  None  of  his  young  en- 
gineers surpassed  him  in  eager  enthusiasm.  None  ap- 
proached him  in  imagination.  They  brought  to  the  work 
greater  knowledge  of  physics  and  mathematics  than  he 
had,  but  he  supplied  the  steady  flame.  He  supplied,  too, 
courage,  persistence,  coordination,  and  driving  power,  and 
he  brought  into  the  new  art  fertile  invention  and  unparal- 
leled mechanical  experience  and  skill. 

At  a  fortunate  moment  in  1890  a  group  of  these  young 
engineers,  and  especially  Stillwell,  Shallenberger,  and  Scott, 
persuaded  him  to  authorize  a  contract  for  a  hydroelectric 
plant  at  Telluride,  Colorado.  It  was  a  small  plant,  only 


THE  TELLURIDE  LESSONS  145 

100  horsepower,  but  it  served  a  large  purpose.  The  plant 
comprised  a  single-phase  generator  driven  by  water  power 
and  a  single-phase  alternating-current  motor  started  by 
a  small  "split-phase"  induction  motor.  The  generator 
and  motor  were  wound  for  3000  volts,  and  this  was  the 
line  potential  adopted.  The  transmission  distance  was 
only  about  three  miles,  but  the  amount  of  copper  required 
for  the  circuit  was  extremely  little  as  compared  with  the 
direct-current  plant  proposed  by  Mr.  Edison,  whose  com- 
pany also  had  been  invited  to  bid  on  the  project.  The  in- 
stallation was  a  decided  success  in  commercial  and  engineer- 
ing results,  and  these  results  had  a  distinct  influence  upon 
alternating-current  development  and  in  deciding  the  sys- 
tem of  generation  and  transmission  adopted  for  Niagara. 

The  Telluride  results  had  also  a  certain  specific  and  in- 
teresting effect  on  the  thought  of  Westinghouse.  In  his 
early  conferences  with  the  Cataract  Construction  Company 
he  was  much  inclined  to  think  that  power  could  be  best 
transmitted  to  Buffalo  by  pneumatic  means.  This  is  quite 
understandable.  For  twenty  years  he  had  been  carrying 
power  by  compressed  air.  Neither  he  nor  any  one  else  knew 
much  about  electrical  transmission.  .But  his  education  was 
quick  and  complete.  The  success  of  the  Telluride  plant  and 
the  progress  at  Pittsburgh  in  the  autumn  of  1892,  particu- 
larly in  the  development  of  the  rotary  converter  and  of 
two-phase  motors,  definitely  changed  his  mind. 

But  Westinghouse  had  not  been  alone  in  considering 
compressed-air  transmission.  It  was  amongst  the  means 
mentioned  in  the  call  for  projects,  and,  besides  the  tenta- 
tive suggestion  of  Westinghouse,  five  definite  plans  were 
submitted.  In  the  list  of  projects  received  by  the  Commis- 
sion is  one  from  Professor  Reidler,  of  Berlin,  and  M.  Victor 
Popp,  of  Paris,  employing  air  compressors  "studied  chiefly 


146  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

with  respect  to  transmission  of  power  to  Buffalo."  Others 
were  from  Mr.  H.  D.  Pearsall,  of  Orpington,  England,  using 
air  compressed  to  150  pounds  per  square  inch;  Professor 
Lupton,  of  Leeds,  and  Mr.  Sturgeon,  of  Chester,  England, 
"hydraulic  motors  and  compressed-air  plant  to  utilize 
125,000  horsepower";  Messrs.  Escher,  Wyss  &  Company, 
of  Zurich,  "a  compressed-air  plant  for  part  of  the  power"; 
and  from  the  Norwalk  Iron  Works  Company,  South  Nor- 
walk,  Conn.  When  the  Commission,  in  the  spring  of  1891, 
awarded  its  premium  for  projects  worthy  of  further  con- 
sideration (Westinghouse  did  not  compete),  four  of  those 
in  Class  A  were  for  compressed-air  transmission.  The  Com- 
mission reported  generally  in  favor  of  electrical  distribution 
with  perhaps  a  partial  use  of  compressed  air  as  an  auxiliary 
method. 

It  should  be  particularly  noted  that  the  Commission  then 
expressed  a  preference  for  distribution  by  direct  current. 
This  opinion  governed  some  time  longer.  Lord  Kelvin, 
President  of  the  Commission,  and  without  question  the 
greatest  mind  amongst  them,  was  the  last  to  accept  alter- 
nating current,  which  he  finally  did  without  reservation, 
and  in  May  1893  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Cataract 
Construction  Company  approved  the  adoption  of  alternat- 
ing-current generators.  This  is  an  important  date  in  his- 
tory and  an  important  date  in  the  life  of  George  Westing- 
house.  It  was  the  triumphant  end  of  a  brilliant  struggle. 

But  to  go  back  a  few  months.  On  December  6,  1892, 
rotary  converters  of  150  horsepower  were  tested  at  Pitts- 
burgh with  extremely  satisfactory  results,  and  Westing- 
house  notified  the  Cataract  Construction  Company  that 
the  Electric  Company  was  ready  to  submit  definite  plans 
and  proposals.  The  converters  were  tested  January  10, 
1893,  by  Doctor  Sellers  and  Professor  Rowland,  of  Johns 


FIRST  PROPOSALS  FOR  NIAGARA  147 

Hopkins.  From  that  time  negotiations  went  on  actively. 
The  officers  of  the  Cataract  Construction  Company  con- 
tinued an  intensive  study  of  their  problems,  with  the  as- 
sistance of  additional  expert  engineers.  The  Westinghouse 
and  General  Electric  Companies  were  also  active  in  their 
preparation,  and  in  March  1893,  both  companies  submitted 
proposals  for  three  5000-horsepower  alternating-current  gen- 
erators of  the  vertical-shaft  type  to  be  placed  in  a  power 
house  above  the  wheel  pit  and  direct  connected  to  the  shafts 
of  turbines  placed  at  the  bottom  of  the  wheel  pit.  They 
submitted  also  plans  of  the  systems  which  they  proposed 
for  transmitting  and  distributing  power. 

The  Westinghouse  Company  proposed  to  wind  the  genera- 
tors for  2200  volts  and  to  use  this  potential  for  distribution 
of  power  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  falls.  For  trans- 
mission to  Buffalo  a  potential  of  11,000  volts  was  to  be  used 
until  such  time  as  line  insulators  adapted  to  22,000  volts 
might  become  commercially  available.  The  step-up  trans- 
formers proposed,  therefore,  were  so  wound  as  to  deliver 
either  11,000  volts  or  22,000  volts. 

The  power  was  to  be  transmitted  to  Buffalo  by  circuits 
consisting  of  bare  copper  wires  carried  on  insulators  of  the 
pin  type.  At  the  Buffalo  end  of  the  line,  step-down  trans- 
formers to  reduce  the  line  potential  to  voltages  suitable  for 
various  local  purposes  were  to  be  installed.  In  that  same 
year  came  Mr.  Charles  F.  Scott's  invention  of  his  ingenious 
method  of  converting  from  two-phase  to  three-phase  cur- 
rent by  a  special  winding  and  grouping  of  transformers, 
and  three-phase  transmission  to  Buffalo  was  thus  accom- 
plished, although  the  generators  were  wound  for  the  two- 
phase  current. 

To  convert  alternating  into  direct  or  continuous  current 
for  operation  of  trolley  lines  and  for  electrolytic  and  other 


148  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

purposes  requiring  that  type  of  current,  rotary  converters 
were  proposed,  and  for  the  development  of  mechanical 
power  for  general  industrial  purposes  two-phase  alternating- 
current  motors  of  the  induction  type  were  recommended. 
It  was  pointed  out,  also,  that  synchronous  motors  could  be 
driven  by  power  from  the  alternating-current  circuits,  and 
that  direct-current  motors  could  be  operated  through  the 
intervention  of  rotary  converters. 

While  the  Westinghouse  Company  proposed  two-phase 
generators,  the  General  Electric  Company  recommended 
a  straight  three-phase  system.  After  examination  by  the 
engineers  of  the  Cataract  Construction  Company,  the  ten- 
ders of  both  manufacturing  companies  were  declined,  and 
the  Cataract  Construction  Company  instructed  its  engi- 
neers to  prepare  an  alternative  generator  design. 

Before  referring  further  to  either  of  these  designs,  it  is 
necessary  to  refer  to  the  question  of  frequency  or  perio- 
dicity of  current. 

Westinghouse  was  probably  the  first  man  of  strong  in- 
fluence in  electric  development  to  realize  the  importance 
of  adopting  and  adhering  to  a  standard  frequency  of  alter- 
nations. Very  early  he  pointed  out  to  the  staff  at  Pitts- 
burgh that  a  standard  frequency  was  important  in  the  same 
sense  that  a  standard  railroad  gage  is  important.  Upon 
his  return  from  Europe  in  1890,  Mr.  Stillwell  had  reported 
that  the  Ganz  Company  was  using  a  frequency  as  low  as 
forty-two  cycles  per  second.  It  was  obvious  that  the  direct 
connection  of  alternating  generators  to  the  reciprocating 
engines  then  in  general  use  was  very  difficult,  if  not  ab- 
solutely impracticable,  unless  a  frequency  much  lower 
than  133  cycles  was  adopted,  and  Westinghouse  gave  in- 
structions for  an  investigation  of  the  subject.  Messrs. 
Stillwell,  Shallenberger,  Schmid,  and  Scott  were  specially 


STANDARD  FREQUENCIES  149 

charged  with  this  study.  Before  the  end  of  1892  they 
selected  two  frequencies  as  standards  for  the  Westinghouse 
Company,  30  cycles  per  second  and  60  cycles;  60  cycles 
to  be  used  where  the  principal  load  was  for  lighting,  and 
30  cycles  where  a  large  part  of  the  power  was  to  be  con- 
verted and  utilized  in  the  form  of  a  direct  current.  In  pre- 
paring the  plans  upon  which  the  first  proposal  to  the 
Cataract  Company  was  based,  the  engineers  of  the  West- 
inghouse Company  found  it  impracticable  to  wind  a  two- 
phase  generator  to  produce  30  cycles  because  of  the  fact 
that  the  Cataract  Company  already  had  placed  its  order 
for  hydraulic  turbines  to  run  at  250  revolutions  per  minute. 
This  fact  forced  them  to  choose  between  a  16-pole  machine 
which  would  produce  33^  cycles  and  a  12-pole  machine 
which  would  produce  25  cycles.  They  selected  the  former, 
and  the  first  tender  of  the  Westinghouse  Company  was 
based  on  this  frequency.  Professor  Forbes,  consulting  elec- 
trical engineer  for  the  Cataract  Construction  Company, 
proposed  16^  cycles  (an  8-pole  generator).  Finally,  as 
a  compromise,  25  cycles  were  adopted,  and  such  has  been 
the  influence  of  the  Niagara  development  that  this  is  to- 
day the  standard  low  frequency  throughout  the  United 
States.  After  an  experience  of  more  than  a  quarter  of  a 
century,  electrical  engineers  are  practically  unanimous  in 
their  opinion  that  it  is  unfortunate  that  30  cycles  is  not 
now  the  standard  low  frequency  instead  of  25  cycles.  The 
frequency,  60  cycles,  which  was  first  adopted  by  the  West- 
inghouse Company  as  a  result  of  Westinghouse's  foresight, 
is  today  the  standard  high  frequency  generally  in  use  in 
the  United  States. 

The  generator  as  finally  adopted  at  Niagara  was  also 
a  compromise.  The  alternator  proposed  by  the  Westing- 
house  Company  had  an  internal  revolving  armature  and 


150  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

an  external  stationary  field.  It  was  a  two-phase  machine 
wound  for  800  volts.  Following  the  rejection  of  this  de- 
sign, the  Cataract  Company  brought  forward  a  design  by 
Professor  George  Forbes  comprising  a  stationary  internal 
armature  and  external  revolving  field.  It  was  wound  for 
20,000  volts,  2  phases,  and  25  cycles.  Mechanically  the 
general  idea  embodied  in  the  design  was  excellent.  Elec- 
trically it  was  impracticable.  One  of  the  Westinghouse 
engineers  writes:  "From  our  present  knowledge  of  machine 
design  it  would  have  been  a  monumental  failure."  It  was 
proposed  to  cool  the  armature-coils  by  forcing  oil  through 
them.  Analysis  revealed  that  this  circulation  would  have 
required  a  pressure  of  400  pounds  per  square  inch,  a  figure 
far  beyond  the  strength  of  the  material  with  which  it  was 
proposed  to  enclose  the  coils.  The  insulation  was  inade- 
quate for  20,000  volts.  It  was  found  impossible  also  to 
design  a  field  ring  of  sufficient  strength  for  an  8-pole  ma- 
chine without  exceeding  the  limit  of  weight  fixed  by  the 
hydraulic  elements  of  the  proposed  plant.  Other  features 
were  regarded  as  unwise  and  the  Westinghouse  Company 
finally  declined  to  accept  any  responsibility  for  the  results 
if  the  machine  were  built. 

In  again  asking  for  bids  the  Cataract  Company  said, 
referring  to  the  alternative  generator  design  prepared  by 
its  engineers,  "any  alterations  that  you  may  propose  in 
this  design  will  be  carefully  considered  and  if  acceptable 
will  be  appreciated  in  placing  the  contract."  The  fixed 
specifications  eventually  agreed  upon  were:  alternating 
current,  two-phase,  25  cycles,  2200  volts  at  a  speed  of  250 
revolutions  per  minute,  5000  electrical  horsepower.  Seven 
manufacturers  in  America  were  asked  to  bid;  we  are  not 
informed  how  many  bids  were  received.  The  resulting  ten- 
ders were  examined  by  a  special  committee  of  two  foreign 


TAKES  THE  CONTRACTS  FOR  NIAGARA         151 

engineers  and  two  from  the  United  States — mechanical  en- 
gineers as  well  as  electrical.  The  result  was  that  in  October 
1893,  a  contract  was  executed  with  the  Westinghouse  Com- 
pany for  three  5000-horsepower  dynamos.  The  contracts 
for  the  switchboard  and  auxiliaries  were  made  in  March 
and  October  1894.  The  first  5000-horsepower  hydro- 
electric unit  was  tested  in  April  1895,  and  in  the  autumn 
of  that  year  the  commercial  distribution  and  sale  of  elec- 
tric power  from  Niagara  Falls  began. 

It  would  be  difficult  for  those  whose  recollection  does 
not  go  back  to  those  days  to  realize  the  great  and  wide- 
spread interest  aroused  by  this  step  in  power  develop- 
ment. The  first  Niagara  hydroelectric  installation  was  a 
brilliant  engineering  achievement.  It  was  accepted  gener- 
ally in  America  and  in  Europe  as  the  demonstrated  solution 
of  the  problem  of  developing  hydraulic  power  for  trans- 
mission and  distribution  and  its  utilization  for  practically 
every  purpose  to  which  power  is  applicable.  Its  results 
have  been  far-reaching  to  an  extent  which  even  today  is 
not  generally  realized. 

The  Cataract  Construction  Company  undertook  and 
carried  to  successful  completion  a  power  enterprise  unpre- 
cedented in  magnitude  at  that  time  and  unequalled  then 
or  since  when  measured  by  its  consequences.  The  methods 
of  investigation,  development,  and  final  determination  of 
plans  employed  by  the  officers  and  directors  of  that  com- 
pany were  remarkable  for  their  vision,  thoroughness,  and 
courage.  That  the  plans  which  they  finally  adopted  after 
world-wide  search  were  in  every  essential  those  developed 
by  Westinghouse  and  his  engineers  is  a  fact  which  detracts 
in  no  way  from  the  credit  due  to  the  officers  and  engineer- 
ing staff  of  the  Cataract  Construction  Company.  The  alter- 
nating-current transformer  is  the  essential  key  to  trans- 


152  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

mission  of  power  at  low  cost.  The  polyphase  motor  is  the 
essential  key  to  the  reproduction  in  mechanical  form  of 
power  transmitted  by  electricity.  In  the  hands  of  West- 
inghouse  and  his  engineers,  the  crude  transformer  of  Gaulard 
and  Gibbs  capable  of  supplying  at  low  efficiency  a  few 
incandescent  lamps  became  in  a  few  years  a  transformer 
which  could  deliver  thousands  of  horsepower  at  an  efficiency 
exceeding  ninety-eight  per  cent,  and  the  primitive  motor 
brought  to  America  by  Tesla  in  1888,  and  loaded  to  its 
practical  limit  when  driving  a  ten-inch  ventilating-fan  be- 
came a  motor  capable  of  delivering  hundreds  and  even 
thousands  of  horsepower. 

Up  to  the  time  of  the  first  Niagara  generators  the  largest 
alternators  built  were  of  1000  horsepower.  The  step  to 
5000  horsepower  was  a  long  one  involving  considerable 
difficulties  in  manufacture.  Many  engineers  who  may  read 
this  book  will  remember  the  impression,  amazing  and  al- 
most astounding,  made  by  these  machines  with  their  pro- 
digious fields  revolving  at  a  peripheral  speed  of  9250  feet 
per  minute,  a  speed  then  considered  terrific.  Some  of  them 
will  remember,  too,  the  surprise  of  Li  Hung  Chang  when 
the  point  of  his  umbrella  caught  a  bolthead  on  the  rim  of 
one  of  these  fields.  The  old  gentleman's  admirable  curiosity 
was  quite  gratified  for  once,  and  by  good  luck  the  umbrella 
went  clear  of  him  in  its  flight  across  the  room. 

In  a  report  on  this  first  Niagara  hydroelectric  plant 
the  Westinghouse  Company  said:  "The  switching  devices, 
indicating  and  measuring  instruments,  bus-bars  and  other 
auxiliary  apparatus,  have  been  designed  and  constructed 
on  lines  departing  radically  from  our  usual  practice.  The 
conditions  of  the  problem  presented,  especially  as  regards 
the  amount  of  power  to  be  dealt  with,  have  been  so  far  be- 
yond all  precedent  that  it  has  been  necessary  to  devise  a 


THE  NIAGARA  ENGINEERS  153 

considerable  amount  of  new  apparatus.  The  general  or- 
ganization of  the  cables,  switches,  and  measuring  instru- 
ments differs  materially  from  anything  of  the  kind  hither- 
to installed  elsewhere.  Nearly  every  device  used  differs 
from  what  has  hitherto  been  our  standard  practice.  Among 
novel  features  of  importance  we  may  mention  the  use  of 
compressed  air  to  operate  the  switching  devices,  the  con- 
struction of  the  5000-horsepower  switches,  and  the  con- 
struction of  the  bus-bars." 

Amongst  the  men  at  Pittsburgh  who  were  active  in  the 
design  and  development  of  the  machines  and  apparatus 
for  Niagara  were  five  who  should  be  cited,  to  use  a  con- 
venient war  word.  These  were  Albert  Schmid,  Benjamin 
G.  Lamme,  Lewis  B.  Stillwell,  Charles  F.  Scott,  and  Oliver 
B.  Shallenberger. 

Schmid,  a  Swiss  engineer,  was  in  the  Westinghouse  ser- 
vice many  years  in  America  and  in  France.  He  died  in 
New  York,  December  31, 1919,  in  his  sixty-third  year.  He 
was  a  mechanical  engineer  and  designer  of  remarkable  gifts. 
He  had  a  fine  sense  of  form  and  proportion  as  well  as  a 
keen  mechanical  faculty.  The  influence  of  his  designs  is 
still  seen  hi  various  classes  of  electrical  machinery.  At  the 
tune  of  the  Niagara  development  he  was  General  Super- 
intendent of  the  Westinghouse  Electric  &  Manufacturing 
Company.  As  an  engineer  he  was  largely  responsible  for 
the  mechanical  designs,  and  as  superintendent  he  was  re- 
sponsible for  the  construction  of  the  machines. 

Lamme  entered  the  Westinghouse  service  in  1888  direct 
from  college,  and  has  been  there  ever  since,  being  now  Chief 
Engineer.  He  has  made  a  broader  mark  in  the  whole  line 
of  Westinghouse  electrical  machinery  than  any  other  man. 
Under  Schmid  he  had  an  important  part  in  designing  the 
electrical  features  of  the  Niagara  generators. 


154  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

Stillwell  entered  the  service  in  October  1886,  also  direct 
from  college.  He  probably  had  a  broader  knowledge  of 
alternating-current  development  in  its  early  years  than 
any  other  one  of  Westinghouse's  young  men.  He  was  active 
in  the  Niagara  enterprise  from  its  start,  had  general  super- 
vision of  that  work  at  Pittsburgh  in  the  period  of  design 
and  construction,  and  was  field  engineer  at  Niagara  Falls 
in  charge  of  installation  and  first  operation  as  Electrical 
Engineer  and  Assistant  Manager  of  the  Westinghouse  Com- 
pany. In  January  1897,  he  was  elected  Electrical  Director 
of  the  Niagara  Falls  Power  Company  and  the  Cataract 
Company  in  charge  of  the  construction  and  operation. 

Scott  and  Shallenberger  were  very  active  in  research, 
experiment,  and  design  of  details.  They  also  were  recently 
out  of  college,  Shallenberger  from  the  Naval  Academy. 
Their  names  are  part  of  the  annals  of  the  Westinghouse 
Company.  Shallenberger  died  in  1898,  and  Scott  has  been 
for  some  years  Professor  of  Electrical  Engineering  at  Yale. 

Such,  briefly  and  inadequately  told,  is  the  story  of  the 
first  great  hydroelectric  plant  at  Niagara  Falls.  It  pro- 
duced 15,000  horsepower  by  three  generators.  The  orig- 
inal plant  was  soon  increased  by  the  addition  of  eight  similar 
units.  The  three  5000-horsepower  units  first  installed  are 
still  in  commercial  use.  They  have  been  operating  day 
and  night  practically  without  interruption  since  1895.  That 
they  were  scientifically  designed  and  carefully  constructed  is 
evidenced  by  the  fact  that  the  cost  of  maintaining  them  dur- 
ing these  years  has  been  less  than  one  per  cent  per  annum. 
The  present  generator  capacity  of  the  three  power  houses 
constructed  by  the  original  Niagara  Falls  Power  Company, 
two  on  the  American  side  and  one  on  the  Canadian  side, 
is  228,000  horsepower.  Five  of  the  later  generators  are 
12,500  horsepower,  and  there  are  five  of  10,000  horsepower. 


SOME  RESULTS  OF  NIAGARA  155 

Of  course  there  has  been  no  change  from  alternating 
current,  and  the  frequency  of  25  cycles  is  still  used  through- 
out. On  the  American  side  the  original  generated  potential 
of  2200  volts  is  maintained,  with  two-phase  current.  On 
the  Canadian  side  the  potential  is  12,000  volts,  three  phase. 
The  tendency  has  been  to  change  from  the  external  re- 
volving field  to  the  less-expensive  internal  revolving  field, 
and  now  more  than  sixty-one  per  cent  of  the  installed  ca- 
pacity is  of  the  internal-field  type. 

When  the  original  power  plant  of  the  Niagara  Falls  Com- 
pany had  demonstrated  its  technical  and  commercial  suc- 
cess, other  power  companies  began  the  development  of  large 
plants,  and  today  the  aggregate  output  capacity  installed 
at  Niagara  is  approximately  500,000  horsepower.  The 
latest  unit  installed  is  of  37,500  horsepower,  and  turbines 
and  generators  of  still  greater  output  are  now  in  course  of 
construction.  It  goes  without  saying  that  experience  on 
such  a  scale  for  twenty-five  years  has  had  its  effect  on  hy- 
draulic engineering,  as  well  as  on  electric.  When  the  Cata- 
ract Construction  Company  decided  to  adopt  5000-horse- 
power  turbines  under  a  head  of  140  feet,  the  largest  hydrau- 
lic turbine  used  in  America  was  about  500  horsepower,  and 
few,  if  any,  larger  were  used  abroad.  The  greatest  head 
under  which  turbines  were  used  in  America  was  about  forty 
feet,  and  although  much  greater  heads  were  used  in  France 
and  Switzerland,  the  units  were  comparatively  small  in 
size.  The  engineers  of  the  Power  Company,  among  whom 
the  late  Doctor  Coleman  Sellers,  of  Philadelphia,  a  lifelong 
friend  of  Westinghouse,  was  chief,  deserved  no  less  credit 
for  their  courage  and  skill  in  dealing  with  the  great  hydraulic 
problem  which  they  faced  than  for  their  vision  and  judg- 
ment in  selecting  the  electric  system  best  adapted  to  meet 
its  requirements. 


156  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

This  splendid  enterprise  so  beneficent  in  its  effect  is  not 
a  monument  to  engineers  alone.  Those  who  risked  their 
money  and  reputation  in  it  had  courage,  enterprise,  and 
imagination.  Their  work  at  Niagara  is  a  wonderful  illus- 
tration of  public  benefit  resulting  from  private  initiative. 
They  were  patient  in  procedure  and  wise  in  method.  They 
share  the  glory  with  the  scientists  who  revealed  the  un- 
derlying principles  and  the  engineers  who  developed  the 
methods  and  machinery. 

It  has  been  said  above  that  the  outcome  at  Niagara 
settled  for  all  time  the  question  as  between  alternating 
current  and  direct  current.  It  also  had  a  tremendous  in- 
fluence in  interesting  capital  for  power  development,  at 
home  and  abroad.  It  was  a  conspicuous  example  of  the 
practicability  of  developing  cheap  power  in  large  central 
stations  and  distributing  it  for  manufacturing,  lighting,  and 
transportation.  One  of  the  earliest  examples  of  long  dis- 
tance transmission  was  the  Niagara,  Lockport  and  On- 
tario Power  Company  which  soon  came  into  being  and  to 
which  Westinghouse  gave  financial  support.  This  com- 
pany carried  electric  power  eastward  195  miles  and  west- 
ward some  95  miles,  serving  several  cities  and  towns.  The 
Niagara  enterprise  hastened  forward  the  epoch  of  manu- 
factured power.  Of  this  more  is  said  in  another  place.  It 
remains  to  say  a  word  about  certain  special  effects. 

The  largest  group  of  electrochemical  workers  in  the  world 
is  at  Niagara  Falls,  and  the  development  of  Niagara  power 
was  the  beginning  of  the  electric-furnace  art  as  a  factor  in 
industrial  processes.  The  commercial  development  of  alumi- 
num was  made  possible  by  Niagara  power,  and  for  years 
Niagara  Falls  was  the  only  seat  of  the  aluminum  industry  in 
America.  The  artificial  abrasive  industry  on  a  commercial 


ELECTROCHEMICAL  RESULTS  157 

scale  started  at  Niagara,  and  in  1914,  sixty-two  per  cent 
of  the  total  abrasives  used  in  the  United  States  were  arti- 
ficial. When  the  Great  War  came,  importation  of  emery 
from  Turkey  and  Greece  ceased.  How  crippled  the  great 
metal-working  industries  of  the  United  States  would  have 
been  without  Niagara  carborundum  and  alundum  may  be 
imagined.  The  total  production  of  ferrosilicon  in  the  United 
States  was,  two  or  three  years  ago,  perhaps  still  is,  at  Ni- 
agara, and  that  which  we  imported  came  mostly  from  Ca- 
nadian works  at  Niagara.  More  than  half  of  the  ferro- 
chromium  consumed  here  is  produced  in  electric  furnaces 
at  Niagara  Falls.  Ferrochromium  is  an  essential  element 
in  the  manufacture  of  armor  plate  and  armor-piercing  pro- 
jectiles, and  shell-steel  specifications  require  a  percentage  of 
silicon.  Ferrosilicon  is  used  in  making  a  great  part  of  our 
steel  production.  The  production  of  alloys  of  tungsten, 
vanadium,  molybdenum,  and  ferrotitanium  depends  more 
or  less  directly  and  largely  on  the  electric  furnaces  of 
Niagara.  All  the  artificial  graphite  used  in  this  country 
and  a  large  proportion  of  all  that  is  used  in  the  world  is 
produced  at  Niagara  Falls,  which  is  the  center  also  of  our 
chlorine  industry  with  its  many  variations,  and  of  an  im- 
portant production  of  phosphorus.  All  these  essential  in- 
dustries so  fundamental  in  our  material  development  and 
so  vitally  affecting  our  civilization  have  grown  up  there  as 
a  result  of  the  development  and  sale  of  cheap  electric  power 
at  Niagara. 

Not  long  ago  a  group  of  enthusiastic  chemical  and  metal- 
lurgical engineers  displayed  at  an  automobile  show  in  New 
York  the  legend  "Niagara  Falls  made  Detroit  possible." 
It  was  not  a  geological  matter  but  industrial.  The  line  of 
development  shown  was  water  power,  cheap  electric  cur- 


158  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

rent,  electric  furnaces,  alloy  steels,  tool  steel,  cheaper  manu- 
facture, cheaper  automobiles,  Detroit.  They  did  not  say 
that  Niagara  Falls  made  possible  our  effective  part  in  the 
Great  War.  They  must  have  been  tempted,  but  they  knew 
the  "eloquence  of  understatement." 


CHAPTER  IX 
ELECTRIC  TRACTION 

WESTINGHOUSE  was  not  the  first  man  to  try  to  haul  cars 
by  electricity,  or  the  first  to  suggest  it.  Far  from  it.  David- 
son, a  Scotchman,  tried  an  electromagnetic  locomotive  in 
1837,  and  Doctor  Werner  Siemens  actually  worked  a  half- 
mile  of  railroad,  of  two-foot  gage,  by  electricity,  at  the 
Berlin  Exhibition  hi  1879.  In  1881  he  built  an  electric  tram- 
way of  one  and  one-half  miles  at  Lichterfelde,  which  he  fol- 
lowed in  the  next  two  years  with  short  mining  roads  taking 
current  from  overhead  conductors.  In  1883  a  tramway, 
six  miles  long,  was  built  between  Portrush  and  Bushmills 
in  the  north  of  Ireland. 

But  electric  traction  has  had  its  greatest  development 
in  the  United  States.  Edison  made  experiments  with  an 
electric  locomotive  at  least  as  far  back  as  1880,  and  Stephen 
D.  Field  was  experimenting  about  the  same  time.  In  the 
next  few  years  half  a  dozen  men,  whose  names  became  well 
known  and  even  famous,  worked  in  this  field.  Of  the  kind 
of  trolley  road  now  common  all  over  the  world  the  first  to 
be  built  and  worked  in  a  commercial  way  was  the  Union 
Passenger  Railway  in  Richmond,  Va.  This  was  designed 
and  built  by  Frank  J.  Sprague,  who  organized  a  little  com- 
pany which  took  the  contract  to  build  the  road  in  May 
1887.  About  the  same  time  Bentley  and  Knight  built  a 
short  line  in  Allegheny  City,  Pa.  Sprague  was  a  graduate 
of  the  United  States  Naval  Academy,  and  resigned  from 
the  navy  to  devote  himself  to  the  electrical  art,  in  which 
he  has  made  a  successful  and  distinguished  career.  He  was 

159 


160  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

one  of  a  remarkable  group  of  young  graduates  who  greatly 
influenced  the  philosophical  and  practical  development  of 
electrical  science  and  art  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  and  most  of  whom  are  still  active.  The 
careers  that  they  have  made  are  good  proof  of  the  ad- 
vanced and  sound  teaching  in  electricity  at  the  Naval 
Academy. 

Westinghouse  was  a  little  later  in  the  field,  but  under  his 
guidance  and  stimulus  the  Westinghouse  Electric  &  Manu- 
facturing Company  quickly  became  a  leader,  and  rapidly 
developed  types  and  systems  which  have  had  a  command- 
ing influence  on  electric  traction.  In  1888  or  1889  experi- 
ments were  made  with  a  Tesla  motor  with  a  view  to  using 
alternating  current  for  railway  working.  From  the  very 
beginning  of  his  efforts  in  traction  Westinghouse  had  in 
mind  alternating  current,  and  he  never  gave  up  that  thought 
until  he  died.  We  are  writing  at  the  moment  particularly 
of  the  kind  of  electric  traction  which  has  been  developed 
in  street-railway  working  and  cross-country  trolley  roads, 
but  from  some  indeterminate  but  early  time  he  began  to 
look  forward  to  the  general  use  of  electricity  on  railroads. 
Writing  in  1910  he  says:  "Believing  unreservedly  that  the 
increased  capacity  of  a  railway  and  its  stations,  the  econo- 
mies of  operation,  and  other  advantages  will  bring  about 
gradually  the  systematic  electrification  of  steam  railways, 
my  wish  is  that  the  progress  of  the  art  may  not  be  ham- 
pered and  such  electrification  of  our  main  lines  delayed  or 
rendered  unprofitable  by  mistakes  which  experience,  judg- 
ment, and  foresight  may  enable  us  to  avoid.  It  is  my  in- 
tention in  this  paper  to  direct  attention  to  the  necessity 
for  the  very  early  selection  of  a  comprehensive  electrical 
system  embracing  fundamental  standards  of  construction." 
Events  have  justified  him;  but  the  first  traction  experiment 


GOES  INTO  STREET  RAILWAYS  161 

with  the  Tesla  motor  failed,  and  was  bound  to,  for  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  induction  motor  were  not  yet  suitable  for 
traction. 

Westinghouse  had  to  be  content  a  while  with  direct-cur- 
rent working.  In  the  fall^of  1889  he  told  Albert  Schmid 
that  he  was  going  into  the  street-railway  business,  and  in- 
structed Schmid  to  get  ready  for  it.  Schmid  directed  Lamme 
to  make  a  study  of  existing  systems.  A  general  scheme  was 
laid  out  and  a  double-reduction-gear  motor  was  designed 
and  built,  and  soon  became  known  as  a  powerful  motor. 
The  design  of  auxiliary  apparatus  was  limited  by  patents, 
but  a  complete  system  was  quickly  evolved  which  was  satis- 
factory for  the  time  and  let  Westinghouse  into  the  field. 
The  three  principal  competitors  were  Sprague,  Thomson- 
Houston,  and  Short,  all  active  and  competent.  The  only 
real  advantage  of  the  Westinghouse  system  was  the  en- 
closed gear,  one  of  Schmid's  improvements,  which  was  a 
distinct  step  forward  and  a  great  selling  point. 

Manufacturers  and  engineers  soon  recognized  that  the 
double-reduction  gear  was  unsatisfactory,  partly  in  undue 
exposure  to  the  weather  and  partly  in  complication,  and 
several  companies  began  designs  of  single-reduction  gear 
motors  independently  and  simultaneously.  In  1890  the 
Westinghouse  Company  brought  out  a  single-reduction-gear 
motor  which  proved  revolutionary,  and  eventually  drove 
all  other  types  out  of  the  market,  and  (modified  and  im- 
proved) is  used  to  this  day.  It  is  the  only  one  produced  at 
that  tune  which  has  persisted  in  type.  It  was  the  progenitor 
of  the  present  direct-current  railway  motor,  and  the  whole 
world  has  come  to  this  type. 

This  new  motor  precipitated  a  serious  commercial  situa- 
tion. It  came  so  suddenly  and  its  use  spread  so  fast  that 
the  several  companies,  Westinghouse  amongst  them,  had 


162  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

to  scrap  large  stocks  of  double-reduction-gear  motors.  This 
was  a  situation  which  Westinghouse  rather  enjoyed,  for 
progress  was  always  a  good  deal  more  interesting  to  him 
than  profit.  He  would  have  said  that  progress  is  profit; 
which  is  true  in  the  long  run,  but  it  is  sometimes  a  little 
difficult  to  finance  that  view  of  life  and  business.  One  of 
his  old  associates  says  that  Westinghouse  was  a  thirty-day 
man.  The  profits  of  the  new  idea  or  the  new  enterprise 
would  begin  to  appear  in  about  thirty  days.  This  tem- 
perament had  much  to  do  with  the  various  embarrassments 
in  his  affairs,  and  it  was  a  powerful  element  in  his  prodigious 
successes. 

In  the  early  days  of  electric  traction,  while  people  were 
feeling  around  for  methods  and  apparatus,  the  matter  of 
feeding  current  to  the  motors  was  the  subject  of  much  in- 
vention and  experiment.  At  first  current  was  taken  from 
a  third  rail  and  returned  through  the  running  rails,  or  the 
two  track  rails  were  used  as  outgoing  and  return  conduc- 
tors respectively.  Westinghouse  made  very  early  experi- 
ments of  this  kind.  One  who  saw  some  of  these  trials  writes : 
"I  recall  that  they  used  to  lead  one  of  the  old  horses  across 
the  track  to  see  whether  he  would  jump  if  he  chanced  to 
get  a  front  foot  on  one  rail  and  a  hind  foot  on  the  other  while 
the  rails  were  charged."  We  may  doubt  if  the  phrase  "they 
used  to"  is  precise.  It  implies  a  fixed  habit. 

Before  the  time  of  which  we  are  now  writing  high  feeling 
had  been  created  about  the  relative  dangers  of  alternating 
and  direct  current.  Controversy  raged  in  the  public  prints. 
Westinghouse  and  Edison  saw  each  other  burning  and 
killing  their  innocent  fellow  citizens,  but  it  is  entirely  fair 
to  say  that  on  the  part  of  Westinghouse  this  fight  was  de- 
fensive. It  began  with  the  short-sighted  but  determined 
effort  to  head  off  the  alternating  current,  which  with  him 


COLLECTING  CURRENT  163 

was  a  prime  article  of  faith.  Naturally;  the  controversy 
affected  in  some  degree  all  schemes  for  supplying  current 
to  car  motors.  Perhaps  the  real  feeling  in  the  Westing- 
house  group  was  expressed  by  Walter  C.  Kerr,  a  man  of 
much  ability  and  famous  for  fluent  and  abundant  talk. 
In  one  of  the  conferences  Kerr  sat  silent,  to  the  surprise  of 
his  comrades.  At  last  one  of  them  said:  "Walter,  what's 
the  matter;  why  don't  you  say  something?"  Kerr  an- 
swered: "There  are  so  many  greater  dangers  in  railroading, 
and  dangers  so  very  much  more  likely  to  happen,  that  this 
matter  seems  to  me  a  good  deal  exaggerated."  Neverthe- 
less, reasonable  attention  must  be  paid  to  public  feeling 
and  reasonable  precautions  must  be  taken  against  possible 
dangers. 

Serious  and  somewhat  costly  experiments  were  carried 
on  with  a  so-called  "button"  system  which  had  attractive 
features.  Contact  shoes  under  the  car  took  current  from 
plates  placed  at  intervals  along  the  track  and  energized 
automatically  only  when  the  car  was  over  them.  Contact 
was  by  buttons,  hence  the  name. 

Various  other  ways  of  taking  current  were  devised  and 
tried,  but  all  yielded  to  the  Vanderpoel  underrunning  trol- 
ley now  in  universal  use.  The  General  Electric  Company 
bought  the  Vanderpoel  patent  and  brought  suit  against 
the  Westinghouse  Company.  It  was  one  of  the  celebrated 
cases  in  the  story  of  electricity.  It  went  against  the  West- 
inghouse Company.  The  counsel  for  the  company,  with 
great  disappointment,  and  some  apprehension,  told  West- 
inghouse the  decision.  He  said:  "That's  good;  now  there  is 
a  basis  for  a  trade.  They  want  our  Tesla  patents  and  we 
want  their  trolley  patent."  In  March  1896,  a  general  ex- 
change of  licenses  was  effected  covering  essentially  the  en- 
tire field  of  operations  of  the  two  companies,  other  than 


164  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

incandescent  electric  lamps.  The  arrangement  was  set 
forth  in  a  carefully  considered  agreement  pursuant  to  which 
was  established  the  Board  of  Patent  Control,  of  which  more 
will  be  said  in  another  place. 

The  Westinghouse  Company  has  continued  strong,  ac- 
tive, and  progressive  in  direct-current  street-railway  work, 
but  Westinghouse  never  slept  on  the  idea  of  using  alternat- 
ing current  for  heavy  traction.  Development  of  apparatus 
was  pushed  steadily  forward,  slowly  it  long  seemed,  but 
never  ceasing. 

Before  going  into  this  matter  with  some  account  of  spe- 
cific things  done,  it  is  well  to  say  a  few  words  about  the 
state  of  the  art  when  Westinghouse  took  up  the  systematic 
production  and  development  of  heavy-traffic  methods  and 
machinery.  The  standard  practice  then  was  the  use  of 
direct  current,  generated  and  distributed  at  550  to  600  volts. 
To  supply  large  quantities  of  power  over  considerable  dis- 
tances necessitated  power-generating  stations  at  frequent 
intervals  and  the  subdivision  of  the  supply  system  into 
small  generating  units.  The  result  must  be  high  cost  of 
generation  and  distribution.  The  reasons  for  this  are  made 
plain  in  the  introductory  passages  of  the  general  chapter  on 
electricity. 

A  further  serious  difficulty  existed  and  even  yet  is  not 
entirely  cleared  away.  That  is  the  difficulty  of  collecting 
large  quantities  of  current  at  low  voltage  from  the  conduc- 
tor delivering  it  to  the  locomotive  or  the  motor  on  a  car. 
Confronted  by  these  hard  and  fast  conditions  the  electri- 
fication of  railroads  of  heavy  traffic  was  at  a  standstill. 
Those  who  knew  the  elements  of  the  situation  saw  little 
promise  of  electrification  on  a  large  scale.  Great  projects 
were  brought  forward,  discussed,  analyzed,  and  abandoned 
because  of  their  cost  and  the  technical  difficulties  in  the 


HEAVY  ELECTRIFICATION  BEGINS  165 

way.  The  situation  was  like  that  of  the  railroads  just  be- 
fore Bessemer  made  the  steel  rail  possible. 

Then  came  the  rotary  converter.  The  story  of  the  origin, 
natures  and  functions  of  this  important  machine  is  told  else- 
where in  this  book.  Alternating  current  in  any  necessary 
quantity  can  be  carried  long  distances  (in  present  practice 
two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  and  more)  at  high  potential 
and  delivered  to  the  converter  at  substations.  There  it  is 
converted  to  direct  current  and  carried  short  distances, 
at  low  voltage,  to  the  place  of  use.  Thus  the  cost  of  gen- 
erating and  distributing  is  brought  down  to  commercial 
limits  and  the  first  difficulty  has  disappeared. 

The  problem  of  collecting  and  handling  low-voltage  cur- 
rent in  large  quantities  remained.  The  third  rail  partly 
met  this.  The  rail  laid  alongside  the  running  rails  carries 
the  current  from  the  substation,  and  it  is  collected  by  a 
shoe,  hanging  from  the  locomotive  or  car.  The  arrangement 
is  simple  and  strong  and  well  adapted  to  maintain  the  neces- 
sary close  adjustment  of  conductor  and  collector. 

The  rotary  converter  and  third  rail  gave  a  quick  and 
strong  impulse  to  heavy  electrification,  but  high  cost  limited 
it  to  situations  of  very  heavy  traffic,  such  as  elevated  and 
subway  service  in  large  cities,  city  terminals,  and  dense 
suburban  traffic.  There  were  also  a  few  places  where  the 
nuisance  and  dangers  of  smoke  from  locomotives  more  than 
balanced  the  greater  cost  of  electric  installation  and  opera- 
tion, such  as  long  tunnels  and  city  terminal  approaches, 
partly  in  tunnel  and  cut. 

When  the  method  of  electric  operation  built  up  on  the 
rotary  converter  and  third  rail  came  to  be  studied  for  pos- 
sible use  on  long  lines  with  comparatively  infrequent  ser- 
vice, it  was  quickly  found  that  it  was  not  a  general  solution 
of  the  problem.  Technically  it  was  possible  if  not  easy; 


166  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

financially  it  was  impossible.  Such  was  the  situation  about 
the  beginning  of  1900. 

In  the  last  months  of  1885  Westinghouse  had  begun  his 
serious  and  powerful  development  of  the  use  of  alternating 
current.  In  the  next  ten  years  he  and  his  engineers 
had  established  beyond  reasonable  doubt  or  question  the 
fact  that  for  the  generation  and  transmission  of  power, 
cheaply  and  on  a  great  scale,  alternating  current  must  be 
used.  They  had  produced  those  fundamental  things,  the 
transformer  and  the  rotary  converter;  they  had  brought 
forward  a  commercial  line  of  alternating-current  motors  and 
meters,  and  they  had  made  the  conclusive  world-demon- 
stration at  Niagara  Falls.  The  way  was  shown.  Engineers 
throughout  the  world  looked  hopefully  and  even  eagerly 
for  the  alternating-current  system  to  solve  the  heavy  rail- 
way problem;  not  because  there  were  any  particular  merits 
in  alternating-current  apparatus  for  traction  itself,  but 
because  here  was  a  high-voltage,  flexible  system,  which,  if 
it  could  only  be  used  on  the  trains  or  locomotives  them- 
selves, would  at  once  settle  the  questions  of  generation, 
transmission,  collection,  and  handling  of  large  units  of 
power  on  a  moving  vehicle. 

But  there  were  lions  in  the  path  yet.  It  was  beginning 
to  be  recognized  that  high  trolley  voltage  (high  voltage  on 
the  conductors  feeding  current  to  the  motors)  was  a  neces- 
sary condition  in  a  general  solution.  With  alternating  cur- 
rent it  was  easy  enough  to  meet  the  high  voltage,  but  there 
were  other  limitations.  In  the  three-phase  traction  system, 
as  brought  out  by  the  Ganz  Company  in  Europe,  three- 
phase  motors  of  large  power  could  be  used,  but  there  was 
the  handicap  of  two  overhead  wires  at  different  potentials, 
thus  involving  a  double  collection  of  current.  Moreover, 
this  system  was  apparently  limited  to  about  3000  or  4000 


SINGLE-PHASE  OPERATION  167 

volts,  and  if  one  was  to  use  alternating  current,  there  should 
be  no  such  limit  to  the  voltage.  Furthermore,  for  lighter 
service,  involving  relatively  small  motors,  the  polyphase 
induction  motor  did  not  seem  to  be  entirely  satisfactory. 
Direct  current  was  recognized,  even  at  this  time,  as  the  pos- 
sible means  provided  much  higher  voltages  than  600  could 
be  used,  but  almost  everybody  had  doubts  as  to  the  prac- 
ticability of  sufficiently  high  voltage,  either  on  the  genera- 
tors or  on  the  motor  equipment.  Thus  much  thought  was 
given  to  the  possibilities  of  single-phase  alternating  current, 
for  here  one  could  use  the  single  overhead  trolley  with  the 
voltage  limitations  largely  removed.  However,  engineers 
were  faced  by  the  fact  that  there  was  as  yet  no  suitable 
single-phase  motor  available.  Mr.  B.  J.  Arnold  made  a 
noteworthy  attempt  toward  single-phase  operation,  by  try- 
ing to  use  a  single-phase  induction  motor  to  drive  a  car 
through  a  special  variable-speed  gear.  This  apparently 
was  the  first  published  attempt  at  traction  by  single 
phase. 

The  Westinghouse  Company  had  already  been  working 
on  the  same  problem,  but  along  radically  different  lines; 
namely,  through  the  development  of  a  series-type,  single- 
phase  motor  with  commutator,  resembling  in  characteris- 
tics the  series-type,  direct-current  motor.  It  had  been  recog- 
nized for  years  that  the  variable-speed  characteristics  of 
the  series-type  motor  were  ideal  for  traction  service,  and 
the  Westinghouse  engineers  tried  to  keep  the  fundamental 
characteristics  of  the  direct-current  system.  To  accomplish 
this  meant  the  commutation  of  alternating  current  on  a 
relatively  large  scale,  something  which  was  then  thought 
to  be  impracticable.  However,  the  company  had  had  suf- 
ficient experimental  experience  with  the  commutation  of 
alternating-current  commutating  motors  to  indicate  that 


168  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

it  was  entirely  possible,  especially  if  the  frequency  used 
was  quite  low. 

In  1901  and  1902  the  engineers  of  the  company  took  up 
the  question  of  building  single-phase  railway  motors,  and 
in  1902  a  contract  was  taken  to  equip  a  high-speed  electric 
line  between  Baltimore  and  Washington  with  single-phase, 
series-type  railway  motors.  This  was  the  true  practical 
beginning  of  the  present  single-phase  railway  system,  for 
although  the  installation  was  not  made,  the  plan  was  put 
fairly  before  the  world.  It  was  recognized  then,  and  al- 
ways has  been  recognized,  that  the  single-phase,  commuta- 
tor-type railway  motor  is  not,  in  itself,  quite  as  economical 
or  efficient  as  direct  current,  but  against  this  it  was  cal- 
culated that  the  simplification  and  economy  of  the  trans- 
mission system,  together  with  the  more  economical  speed 
control,  would  offset  the  decreased  economy  of  the  motor 
itself.  From  the  speed-control  standpoint,  the  single-phase 
system  was  far  ahead  of  the  direct  current,  for  the  flexi- 
bility of  the  alternating-current  system  allowed  voltage 
variations  for  controlling  the  motor  speed,  without  the  use 
of  regulating  rheostats  for  absorbing  the  extra  voltage  and 
power.  Here  was  one  of  the  major  advantages,  especially 
for  locomotive  work. 

Like  all  new  things,  the  single-phase  system,  when  first 
brought  out,  was  sometimes  misapplied.  In  a  number  of 
cases  where  the  direct-current  system  did  not  seem  appli- 
cable, the  single-phase  system  was  used  and  was  also  found 
inapplicable,  the  fault,  however,  not  lying  directly  in  the 
system  of  electrification.  In  a  number  of  cases  there  was  an 
attempt  to  use  the  alternating-current  system  in  connection 
with  large  direct-current  systems  already  established,  thus 
involving  much  complexity  in  equipment.  In  fact,  within 
a  few  years,  it  developed  that  the  single-phase  system  was 


ST.  CLAIR  TUNNEL  169 

not  a  satisfactory  alternative  to  the  direct-current  system 
in  general,  but  that  it  had  its  own  field,  and  this  field  was 
where  the  special  characteristics  and  advantages  of  high 
trolley  potentials  would  apply.  In  other  words,  the  single- 
phase  system  really  began  where  the  direct-current  system 
was  handicapped  by  limitations  of  voltage  on  the  conduc- 
tors and  difficulty  of  speed  control.  One  excellent  result 
of  the  competition  was  the  development  of  direct-current 
systems  using  comparatively  high  voltages,  running  up 
eventually  to  3000  volts  on  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St. 
Paul,  of  which  more  will  be  told  later. 

While  there  were  misapplications  of  the  single-phase 
system  at  first,  due  largely  to  over  enthusiasm,  yet  within 
a  very  few  years  it  began  to  be  used  in  heavy  service,  and 
in  all  such  installations  it  has  persisted,  and  not  only  per- 
sisted but  has  enlarged  its  field.  One  of  the  first  large  in- 
stallations was  in  the  St.  Clair  tunnel  of  the  Grand  Trunk 
Railway  under  the  St.  Clair  River.  There  were  heavy  grades 
at  either  end  of  the  tunnel,  and  the  locomotives,  work- 
ing hard,  emitted  much  smoke  and  gas.  This  was  not  merely 
disagreeable;  it  was  dangerous  to  the  lives  of  trainmen  and 
passengers  if  trains  were  stalled  in  the  tunnel.  The  same 
things  led  to  electric  working  of  other  tunnels.  The  electric 
motive  power  in  the  St.  Clair  tunnel  was  large,  slow-speed 
locomotives,  and  the  first  locomotives  installed  are  still  in 
use.  The  electrical  engineering  and  equipment  were  by 
the  Westinghouse  Company.  The  tunnel  itself  was  a  re- 
markable engineering  achievement — bold,  enterprising,  and 
attended  with  some  peculiar  risks.  It  was  one  of  the  earliest 
examples  of  a  cast-iron-tube  tunnel  built  by  the  driven- 
shield  method.  This,  with  the  successful  alternating-cur- 
rent working,  made  a  combination  famous  the  world  over. 

The  second  large  single-phase  project,  begun  practically 


170  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

at  the  same  time  as  the  St.  Clair  tunnel,  was  the  well-known 
New  Haven  electrification.  This  attracted  great  attention 
and  much  criticism  and  incredulity.  After  the  contract 
was  taken  for  electrification  at  11,000  volts,  25  cycles, 
single  phase,  many  engineers,  undoubtedly  with  all  sin- 
cerity, insisted,  privately  and  publicly,  that  the  thing 
was  a  physical  impossibility,  and  that  large  passenger  and 
express  trains  could  not  be  handled  by  single-phase  equip- 
ment. However,  Westinghouse  did  not  worry  about  the 
opinions  of  others  in  this  matter,  and  was  always  eager  to 
take  up  the  cudgel  in  favor  of  alternating-current  traction. 
He  took  the  New  Haven  contract  before  the  apparatus  was 
designed  and  he  said  to  some  of  his  engineers:  "Now  I  have 
dropped  you  into  the  middle  of  the  pond  and  it  is  up  to 
you  to  swim  out."  They  had  swimming  a-plenty.  The 
real  troubles  were  not  where  they  were  expected.  The  first 
forty  locomotives  built  were  of  the  gearless  types,  that  is, 
with  the  armatures  around  the  axles,  but  driving  through 
flexible  connections.  Many  wise  men  shook  their  heads 
over  these  motors,  as  a  gearless,  single-phase,  commutator- 
type  motor  for  300  horsepower  had  never  been  attempted 
before,  which  might  be  said  of  everything  else  in  this  sys- 
tem. However,  it  was  not  the  motors  which  developed 
trouble.  In  fact,  these  motors  made  about  the  best  record 
of  any  of  the  elements  which  made  up  this  great  system. 
Troubles  developed  in  connection  with  the  overhead-trolley 
system  and  its  protective  devices.  Short  circuits,  and  vol- 
tage and  current  surges,  had  been  encountered  in  all  alter- 
nating-current systems,  in  connection  with  power  distribu- 
tion in  general,  but  these  were  only  semi-occasional.  In 
the  New  Haven  system,  at  first,  they  were  not  only  of  daily 
occurrence,  but  sometimes  many  times  a  day,  and  appara- 
tus which  might  stand  a  few  surges  during  the  year  and 


CHICAGO,  MILWAUKEE  &  ST.  PAUL  171 

still  have  reasonably  long  life,  was  found  to  last  only  a  few 
weeks  on  the  New  Haven  system.  New  circuit  breakers, 
new  selective  arrangements,  new  protective  devices,  new 
methods  of  insulation,  new  problems  of  trolley  suspension, 
new  problems  of  underrunning  trolleys  had  to  be  handled. 
For  the  first  two  years  some  lively  work  had  to  be  done, 
but  it  was  seen  quite  early  that  most  of  the  difficulties  to 
be  overcome  were  not  fundamental  in  character  and  the 
remedies  were  not  prohibitive  in  cost  or  otherwise.  Be- 
hind all  this,  Westinghouse  had  full  confidence  in  the  sys- 
tem and  in  his  engineers,  and  the  engineers  on  the  New 
Haven  Railway  also  had  confidence.  With  these  powers 
behind  it,  the  system  eventually  began  to  loom  up  as  a  suc- 
cess, instead  of  the  failure  which  many  had  predicted.  In 
few  great  undertakings  of  any  kind  has  there  been  shown 
more  persistence,  stamina,  and  resourceful  engineering 
than  in  this  New  Haven  electrification. 

The  most  important  example  in  the  world  today  of  work- 
ing by  electricity  a  railroad  of  heavy  traffic  is  the  New 
Haven  Road;  that  is,  the  most  important  in  the  amount  of 
equipment  and  volume  of  traffic.  But  far  the  greatest  in 
mileage  worked  is  the  mountain  section  of  the  Chicago,  Mil- 
waukee &  St.  Paul.  Here  also  are  some  matters  of  special 
interest  in  topography,  in  equipment,  and  in  methods  of 
operation.  Two  mountain  sections  have  been  electrified,  640 
miles,  crossing  four  mountain  ranges,  the  grades  running 
up  to  two  per  cent,  104  feet  per  mile.  Current  is  bought 
from  the  Montana  Power  Company,  which  has  several  gen- 
erating stations,  all  driven  by  water  power.  The  Power 
Company  has  some  2000  miles  of  transmission  line,  carry- 
ing current  at  pressures  as  great  as  100,000  volts.  Power 
is  sold  to  other  users  than  the  railroad.  This  is,  of  course, 
alternating  current,  but  the  locomotives  are  operated  by 


172  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

direct  current,  converted  by  motor-generator  sets  at  sub- 
stations situated  at  average  intervals  of  about  thirty-three 
miles,  so  that  the  direct-current  transmission  is  short.  The 
motors  work  at  3000  volts,  the  highest  direct-current  volt- 
age yet  used  commercially  in  traction. 

The  machinery  and  apparatus  for  the  first  installation 
was  supplied  by  the  General  Electric  Company,  but  the 
Westinghouse  Company  has  since  furnished  much  impor- 
tant substation  and  power-control  apparatus,  and  recently 
it,  in  cooperation  with  the  Baldwin  Locomotive  Company, 
has  furnished  a  number  of  magnificent  passenger  locomo- 
tives. These  are  the  largest  passenger  engines  in  the  world, 
weighing  275  tons,  direct  current,  at  3000  volts,  and  rated 
at  4200  horsepower.  It  goes  without  saying  that  the  whole 
enterprise  rests  on  Westinghouse's  conception  of,  and  long 
contest  for,  the  distribution  of  power  by  alternating  cur- 
rent. 

There  are  two  features  of  this  installation  that  appeal 
to  every  intelligence  however  unfamiliar  with  electrical 
engineering.  One  is  regeneration,  that  is,  using  the  motors, 
going  down  grade,  as  generators,  and  feeding  current  to 
other  trains  on  the  same  section  or  putting  it  back  through 
the  motor-generator  stations  to  the  alternating-current 
supply  system.  This  had  been  done  before  in  a  small  way 
in  street-railway  work  and  in  some  minor  locomotive  ser- 
vice, using  direct  current.  It  was  done  on  an  important 
scale  in  the  three-phase  alternating-current  traction  sys- 
tems installed  by  the  Ganz  Company  and  the  Italian  West- 
inghouse Company  in  Italy.  With  three-phase  operation, 
however,  regeneration  is  a  relatively  simple  matter.  When 
the  three-phase  induction  motor  runs  above  its  synchronous 
speed  it  automatically  begins  to  generate  power.  In  con- 
sequence, with  the  three-phase  motors,  regeneration  is  an 


REGENERATION  173 

almost  automatic  adjunct  to  the  system.  Regeneration  is 
also  used  on  the  Norfolk  &  Western  electrification  (a  West- 
inghouse  installation),  which  went  into  operation  eight 
months  before  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  began 
operation.  This  is  a  single-phase  system,  with  phase  split- 
ters for  developing  three  phase  on  the  locomotive  for  use 
with  induction  motors.  Therefore,  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee 
&  St.  Paul  regeneration  was  not  new,  but  it  was  new  in 
the  sense  that  auxiliary  apparatus  was  necessary  in  order 
to  produce,  more  or  less  automatically,  the  regenerative 
characteristics.  The  usual  series-type,  direct-current  motors, 
as  used  on  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  locomotives, 
are  not  in  themselves  capable  of  feeding  power  back  to  the 
line  in  a  stable  manner.  Stability  in  practice  is  obtained 
by  field  excitation  derived  from  a  separate  source,  and  the 
regenerative  devices  used  hi  these  equipments,  both  on  the 
Westinghouse  and  General  Electric  locomotives,  are  very 
interesting. 

It  is  an  attractive  thought  that  gravity,  acting  through 
a  tram  dropping  down  grade,  should  generate  power  to 
haul  another  train  up  grade.  The  actual  saving  in  the  total 
power  consumption  hi  the  St.  Paul  operation  is  from  10 
to  15  per  cent.  Naturally,  regeneration  can  occur  only  on 
grades,  therefore  the  power  saving  can  never  be  a  great 
part  of  the  total  power  used  on  an  operating  division.  But 
even  10  or  15  per  cent  is  worth  saving. 

Another  important  result  is  in  the  braking  effect.  Part 
of  the  energy  developed  in  the  train  going  down-hill  is  con- 
sumed in  running  the  motors  which  are  acting  as  genera- 
tors. That  energy  need  not  be  taken  care  of  by  the  brakes. 
Thus,  wear  of  brake  shoes  and  wheels  is  reduced;  there  is 
an  element  of  safety  in  the  added  braking  power;  more 
uniform  speed  on  grades  adds  to  the  comfort  of  passengers 


174  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

and  reduced  wear  and  tear  on  equipment,  and,  finally,  han- 
dling heavy  freight  trains  on  mountain  grades  is  easier. 

The  other  peculiar  feature  referred  to  is  the  automatic 
control  of  current  used  on  an  operating  division  of,  say, 
two  hundred  miles.  If  you  are  in  the  cab  of  a  locomotive 
you  may  see  the  voltmeter  drop.  If  you  are  observant  and 
curious  you  ask  the  engineer  what  has  happened.  He  tells 
you  that  a  train  is  starting  up  a  grade  perhaps  one  hun- 
dred miles  away.  At  that  instant  the  speed  of  all  trains 
on  the  same  operating  division  is  automatically  lowered, 
regardless  of  anything  that  the  engineer  can  do.  In  this 
installation  the  total  quantity  of  power  used  at  any  one 
time  must  be  kept  down  to  a  fixed  maximum.  Due  to 
the  extremely  variable  power  requirements  of  the  railway 
system  in  general,  excessive  burdens  are  liable  to  be  im- 
posed upon  the  power  supply  at  times,  and  to  limit  these 
a  system  of  power  charges  has  been  instituted  which  puts 
a  relatively  high  penalty  on  power  excess.  A  power-limit- 
ing system  has  been  devised  whereby  the  peaks  of  power 
taken  will  automatically  be  lessened.  This  is  done  by  what 
might  be  called  "a  load-balancing  system,"  whereby  power 
peaks  are  automatically  held  down  by  means  of  reduction 
in  voltage  in  any  section  which  is  carrying  an  overload. 
This  power  equalizing  or  limiting  system  is  too  complex 
for  description  here,  but  its  general  effect  is  to  keep  down 
the  peaks  without  unduly  affecting  the  service.  This  is 
done  automatically  by  the  power  indicating  and  limiting 
system.  The  maximum  reduction  of  power  obtainable  is 
about  thirty  per  cent  of  that  which  could  be  used  if  the 
control  system  were  not  provided.  This  is  a  very  pretty 
example  of  flexibility  of  electric  operation.  For  many  rea- 
sons this  great  electrification  has  become  famous  all  over 
the  world,  and  it  is  constantly  visited  by  engineers  from 
many  countries. 


ELECTRIFYING  RAILROADS  175 

This  is  a  water-power  operation.  It  is  fairly  plain  that 
railroads  cannot  be  worked  by  water  power  when  there  is 
no  reliable  and  sufficient  water  power  to  develop.  Many 
water-power  projects,  designed  for  manufacturing,  have 
come  to  grief  because  the  difficulties  and  limitations  have 
not  been  seen  and  analyzed.  But  as  knowledge  grows,  the 
radius  of  transmission  lengthens.  It  becomes  practicable, 
technically  and  economically,  to  mass  several  smallish  water 
powers  into  one  large  system  and  send  the  combined  power 
long  distances.  The  problem  changes,  and  from  year  to 
year  it  is  more  and  more  possible  to  make  use  of  water 
powers  of  small  and  irregular,  supply,  extending  and  di- 
versifying hydroelectric  projects.  It  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  all  this  is  at  bottom  a  matter  of  transmission,  and  that 
transmission  rests  finally  on  the  alternating  current. 

The  economic  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  electric 
haulage  on  railroads  of  heavy  traffic,  now  worked  by  steam, 
are  not  measured  by  the  relative  cost  of  a  unit  of  energy 
delivered  at  the  place  where  it  does  work.  There  is  the 
obvious  advantage  of  saving  coal  for  other  uses.  There 
is  the  advantage,  not  quite  so  obvious,  of  releasing  miners 
for  other  work.  There  is  the  advantage,  perhaps  still  less 
obvious,  of  saving  the  transportation  of  railroad  coal,  re- 
leasing cars,  engines,  tracks,  and  men  to  haul  coal  to  other 
consumers;  to  haul  wheat,  steel,  beef,  and  merchandise. 
The  higher  uniform  speed  possible  with  electricity  permits 
the  same  amount  of  freight  to  be  handled  with  fewer  cars, 
an  item  of  very  great  importance,  as  everybody  knows  now. 
Labor  is  possibly  the  most  important  item  of  all.  Increase 
in  size  and  speed  of  trains  saves  train  labor.  Roundhouse 
and  shop  labor  is  reduced  to  still  greater  extent,  and  labor 
is  the  largest  single  item  in  transportation  cost. 

Something  will  be  said  later  on  of  the  effect  on  the  prog- 


176  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

ress  of  mankind  of  the  evolution  of  the  art  of  transporta- 
tion. In  land  transportation  the  continued  improvement 
of  railroads  is  immensely  the  most  important  thing.  As 
the  needs  of  organized  society  grow,  the  growth  of  the 
capacity  of  the  railroad  machine  becomes  more  and  more 
urgent.  It  is  said  by  many  wise  men  that  the  capacity  of 
a  railroad  can  be  doubled  by  the  use  of  electric  power,  with 
present  operating  methods.  It  is  hard  to  forecast  the  further 
increase  in  capacity  through  changes  in  operating  methods 
that  may  follow  upon  the  possibility  of  almost  unlimited 
power  on  each  train.  We  may  look  for  something  like  a 
revolution  in  railroad  practice  as  a  result  of  alternating- 
current  distribution. 

All  of  these  things  being  so,  the  drift  toward  electrifica- 
tion is  bound  to  gain  in  volume  and  velocity.  At  this 
moment  Japan,  Switzerland,  and  Sweden,  with  mountain 
railroads,  abundant  water  power,  and  dear  fuel,  are  working 
up  great  projects  of  railroad  electrification,  and  inevitably 
they  turn  to  eight  or  ten  successful  workings  in  America 
for  experience  and  to  American  engineers  for  information 
and  opinion;  and  the  shade  of  George  Westinghouse  says: 
"All  of  this  I  foresaw  and  part  of  it  I  was." 

Along  with  the  development  of  high-voltage,  direct-cur- 
rent motors,  as  on  the  St.  Paul,  the  Westinghouse  Company 
has  continued  to  develop  the  single-phase  system  with  com- 
mutator motors,  so  that  it  has  become  capable  of  meeting 
all  the  requirements  of  freight  and  passenger  service  under 
extremely  heavy  conditions.  Moreover,  it  can  handle  multi- 
ple-unit and  small-car  service  with  equal  facility,  and  it  is 
particularly  well  adapted  for  electrification  of  freight  yards, 
as  in  the  Harlem  yards  of  the  New  Haven  Company,  prob- 
ably the  finest  example  of  electrified  freight  yards  that 
can  be  found  anywhere  in  the  world.  Thus  we  see  that 


RAILROADS  AND  ELECTRICITY  177 

Westinghouse's  hope  for  a  universal  system  for  handling 
heavy  railway  work  is  realized  as  he  expected  by  a  purely 
alternating-current  system.  Time  is  showing  the  truth  of 
his  opinions. 

From  what  has  been  written  here  it  may  be  seen  that  in 
the  heavy  railway  field,  Westinghouse  and  the  Westing- 
house  Electric  &  Manufacturing  Company  have  been  at 
the  front  in  development  and  progress.  The  only  radically 
new  system  brought  out,  namely,  the  single  phase,  originated 
with  the  Westinghouse  Company.  The  split-phase  system, 
which  is  really  a  branch  of  the  single  phase,  was  experi- 
mented with  as  early  as  1896  or  1897,  in  connection  with 
plans  for  electrifying  the  Manhattan  Elevated  in  New  York, 
and  a  phase  splitter  and  induction  motor  were  so  operated 
on  experimental  test.  Later  the  General  Electric  Company 
took  up  similar  lines  of  experimentation  and  published  a 
description  of  a  split-phase  system  somewhat  earlier  than 
the  Norfolk  &  Western,  although  apparently  this  system 
was  never  applied  commercially.  Credit  for  the  commercial 
application  of  the  split-phase  system,  therefore,  lies  with 
the  Westinghouse  Company.  It  is  interesting  also  to  note 
that  the  later  three-phase  electric  locomotives  on  the  Italian 
state  railways  were  built  by  the  Italian  Westinghouse 
Company.  The  Westinghouse  Electric  &  Manufacturing 
Company  has  had  practical  operating  experience  with  all 
systems  which  have  been  seriously  proposed  for  railway 
electrification,  and  has  carried  them  through  to  successful 
operation. 

It  is  written  in  the  sky  that  sooner  or  later  the  railroads 
of  the  earth  will  be  worked  by  electricity.  The  way  has 
been  prepared  by  those  doings  which  have  been  related. 
It  has  not  been  the  purpose  of  the  narrative  to  suggest  for 
a  moment  that  Westinghouse  and  his  engineers  have  been 


178  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

alone  in  the  preparation.  Far  from  it.  The  General  Elec- 
tric Company  has  done  big  things.  It  has  worked  with 
skill  and  energy  and  power.  Ganz  &  Company  and  others 
in  Europe  have  done  important  things.  Westinghouse 
and  his  men  have  always  been  amongst  the  leaders,  and  in 
certain  fundamental  things  they  have  led  the  leaders.  In 
the  origin  and  development  of  the  use  of  the  alternating 
current,  without  which  these  great  things  would  have  been 
impossible,  Westinghouse  was  first  and  was  always  pre- 
eminent. His  engineers  earned  and  justified  the  confidence 
and  support  that  he  gave  them,  generously  and  steadfastly. 


CHAPTER  X 
STEAM  AND  GAS  ENGINES 

IT  is  probable  that  in  the  two  centuries  before  the  Chris- 
tian era,  Syracuse  was  rich  in  legends  of  the  boyish  inven- 
tions of  little  Archimedes.  Everybody  has  been  told  that 
the  steam  engine  as  a  tool  grew  out  of  the  observations 
and  reflections  of  the  boy  Watt  upon  the  performances  of 
steam  in  a  teakettle.  Likewise  the  boyhood  haunts  of 
George  Westinghouse  have  traditions  of  the  contrivances 
that  occurred  to  the  deep-revolving  mind  of  another  boy. 
But  the  earliest  documentary  evidence  of  Westinghouse's 
inventive  faculty  is  found  in  a  patent  dated  October  31, 
1865,  for  improvement  in  rotary  steam  engines.  This  was 
the  beginning  of  a  line  of  invention,  development,  and  manu- 
facture that  interested  him  and  received  an  important  part 
of  his  attention  throughout  his  entire  life.  The  patent  was 
issued  twenty-five  days  after  he  was  nineteen  years  old. 
There  is  good  reason  to  think  that  the  invention  was  well 
begun  some  years  earlier,  before  he  went  into  the  army. 

We  do  not  know  the  direct  inspiration  that  led  to  the 
particular  invention  shown  in  this  patent,  but  Westing- 
house's  environment  was  such  as  to  arouse  an  interest  in 
steam  engineering  in  any  one  having  mechanical  instincts, 
and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  he  turned  to  the  rotary 
engine  as  a  means  of  eliminating  supposed  losses  in  con- 
verting reciprocating  into  rotary  motion,  as  was  done  by 
then  existing  types  of  steam  prime  movers.  It  has,  of  course, 
been  demonstrated  that  when  reciprocating  engines  are 
properly  designed,  there  are  no  serious  losses  of  the  kind 

179 


180  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

often  assumed  by  those  not  fully  informed  as  to  the  under- 
lying principles  involved.  If  Westinghouse  was  at  first  in 
error  with  respect  to  this  particular  point,  it  still  remained 
true  that  a  successful  rotary  engine  would  have  important 
advantages  of  compactness,  high  speed,  and  light  weight, 
so  that  the  subject  forever  remained  one  of  absorbing  in- 
terest to  him,  and  found  manifestation  in  many  and  vari- 
ous forms  of  prime  movers  which  utilized  either  steam  or 
gas  for  propulsion.  The  rotary  engine  described  in  the 
first  patent  was  built  but  never  operated.  A  second  one, 
built  on  somewhat  different  lines,  also  proved  to  be  prac- 
tically inoperative. 

While  still  in  the  navy  (that  is,  before  he  was  nineteen), 
Westinghouse  designed  and  partly  built  a  four-cylinder 
reciprocating  engine  with  the  cylinders  placed  radially 
around  a  central  valve  casing  containing  a  rotary  valve  to 
effect  steam  distribution.  This  was  a  very  early  example  of 
that  arrangement.  Construction  of  this  small  model  engine 
was  completed  shortly  after  he  was  mustered  out  of  the 
navy.  It  is  still  in  existence  and  is  an  operative  machine. 
As  was  to  be  expected,  construction  difficulties  were  de- 
veloped, but  in  collaboration  with  his  brother,  John  West- 
inghouse, a  new  form  was  designed,  from  which  a  forty- 
horsepower  engine  was  built  which  was  used  for  some  years 
to  furnish  power  for  driving  the  machinery  of  his  father's 
shop  at  Schenectady.  Compared  with  the  then  existing 
reciprocating  engines,  it  was  relatively  compact  and  light 
in  weight,  as  the  heavy  flywheel  was  dispensed  with  by  the 
use  of  mutiple  cylinders  and  high  rotative  speed.  Struc- 
tural and  operative  defects  gradually  appeared  and  another 
engine  was  built  on  the  same  general  principle  of  four  radial 
cylinders,  in  which  many  earlier  defects  were  cured.  This 
engine  furnished  the  power  to  drive  blowers  that  supplied 


ROTARY  ENGINES  181 

the  blast  for  the  steel-melting  furnaces  in  his  first  indus- 
trial undertaking,  the  making  of  cast-steel  frogs  and 
switches.  It  is  believed  that  this  was  the  first  foundry  in 
the  United  States  to  make  steel  castings  exclusively. 

Again  he  devised  a  variation  of  the  four-cylinder  recipro- 
cating type  of  engine,  that  was  built  upon  experience  pre- 
viously obtained,  and  was  used  to  furnish  power  for  the 
new  Air  Brake  Works  at  Pittsburgh.  It  ran  satisfactorily 
for  some  years,  but  had  no  marked  advantages  over  the 
accepted  type  of  reciprocating  steam  engines. 

As  a  result  of  observation  during  his  first  visit  in  Eng- 
land, he  became  familiar  with  the  single-acting  form  of 
multiple-cylinder  steam  engine,  and  on  his  return  designed 
one  with  certain  modifications  and  improvements  that  he 
hoped  might  make  it  commercially  adaptable  to  many  pur- 
poses in  this  country.  This  particular  engine  supplanted 
the  one  first  used  to  drive  the  machinery  of  the  Air  Brake 
Company,  and  continued  to  operate  for  a  few  years,  being 
finally  replaced  by  a  reciprocating  engine  of  the  standard 
type. 

That  these  inventive  efforts  were  regarded  by  Westing- 
house  as  tentative  and  experimental  is  pretty  well  estab- 
lished by  the  fact  that  no  patents  were  taken  for  any  but 
the  first  rotary  engine.  The  subject  was  apparently  dor- 
mant in  his  mind  until  1891,  when  he  patented  another 
form  of  rotary  engine  that  for  many  years  thereafter  was 
the  object  of  intense  application,  resulting  in  the  produc- 
tion of  numerous  examples  embodying  various  changes 
and  improvements.  The  1891  patent  contained  a  clear 
and  concise  statement  of  the  reasons  why  previous  efforts 
by  other  inventors  had  failed  to  produce  practical  and  ef- 
ficient machines,  and  proposed  a  remedy. 

While  no  commercial  production  of  rotary  steam  engines 


182  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

resulted  from  these  efforts,  many  machines  were  made  and 
sold  in  the  form  of  air  compressors,  and  proved  to  be  most 
efficient  for  the  purpose.  Experience,  however,  developed 
that  there  were  certain  limitations  tending  to  restrict  the 
field  in  which  they  could  profitably  be  employed,  and 
their  commercial  manufacture  was  discontinued.  An  ex- 
amination of  the  many  patents  issued  to  Westinghouse  in 
this  line,  or  bought  by  him  from  other  inventors,  will  satisfy 
any  one  sufficiently  interested  to  inquire  into  the  matter, 
that  they  disclosed  most  important  contributions  to  the 
branch  of  engineering  art  to  which  they  relate,  although 
the  meritorious  character  of  the  intelligence  and  industry 
expended  upon  them  has  naturally  been  obscured  by  the 
fact  that  these  efforts  did  not  result  in  large  commercial 
production. 

The  interest  of  Westinghouse  in  the  rotary  type  of  engine 
was  not  confined  to  his  own  inventions.  Patent  572,946, 
issued  to  C.  A.  Backstrom  December  15,  1896,  illustrates 
a  form  of  rotary  engine  quite  distinct  from  those  shown 
in  the  patents  issued  to  Westinghouse.  The  Backstrom 
patent  was  bought  by  Westinghouse,  and  the  Backstrom 
principle,  with  many  variations  made  by  Westinghouse, 
was  labored  with  assiduously  and  carried  through  an  exten- 
sive series  of  experiments,  without,  however,  reaching  a  sat- 
isfactory conclusion.  It  all  makes  a  most  interesting  and 
important  chapter  in  the  field  of  the  rotary  prime  mover. 

GAS  ENGINES 

Westinghouse's  experience  in  the  natural-gas  field  and 
his  efforts  to  make  and  distribute  producer  gas,  naturally 
brought  to  his  attention  the  adaptability  of  gas  engines 
where  natural  gas  or  producer  gas  was  available,  with  the 
result  that  the  manufacture  of  gas  engines  of  moderate 


GAS  ENGINES  183 

size  was  established  as  a  part  of  the  regular  product  of  the 
Westinghouse  Machine  Company.  The  form  of  gas  engine 
then  in  general  use  was  the  horizontal  type,  with  hit-or- 
miss  speed  regulation.  This  arrangement  required  heavy 
flywheel  effect  to  compensate  for  intermittent  explosions, 
and  even  then  the  performance  was  unsatisfactory  for  elec- 
tric-lighting purposes,  because  of  variable  speed.  His  first 
patented  contribution  to  the  gas-engine  art  was  a  method 
of  regulation  that  provided  substantially  uniform  rotative 
speed,  making  the  engines  entirely  satisfactory  for  electric- 
lighting  purposes,  a  use  to  which  they  were  largely  and 
successfully  applied. 

The  high  thermal  efficiency  of  gas  engines  as  compared 
with  the  best  performance  of  steam  engines  led  Westing- 
house  in  the  late  nineties  to  believe  that  if  gas  engines  of 
sufficient  size  could  be  successfully  produced  to  meet  the 
increasing  demands  for  central-station  production  of  elec- 
tricity for  lighting  and  power  purposes,  they  would  entirely 
supplant  the  use  of  steam,  and  he  therefore  directed  his 
efforts  toward  the  production  of  relatively  large  sizes  of 
gas  engines  with  the  expectation  that  they  would  be  sup- 
plied with  gas  from  gas  producers  in  much  the  same  manner 
that  steam  is  supplied  by  boilers  to  steam  engines.  For 
some  years  this  was  one  of  his  many  enthusiasms.  He  had 
great  and  fascinating  visions  of  power  stations  with  gas 
engines,  and  spent  much  thought  and  money  in  efforts  to 
work  out  methods  of  making  fuel  gas.  Two  factors  in  the 
problem  changed  with  such  rapidity  that  he  ultimately 
became  convinced  that  the  field  for  gas  engines  was  much 
more  limited  than  he  at  one  time  had  assumed  it  to  be. 
These  factors  were,  first,  a  greatly  increased  efficiency  in 
steam  turbines  due  to  improved  design  and  the  use  of  high- 
pressure  superheated  steam  with  high  vacuum,  and,  sec- 


184  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

ondly,  the  demand  for  much  larger  power  units  than  could 
by  any  possibility  be  produced  hi  the  form  of  gas  engines, 
the  largest  gas  unit  not  exceeding  5000  horsepower,  while 
turbines  varying  from  20,000  to  60,000  horsepower  are  now 
hi  large  use. 

TURBINES 

The  interest  of  Westinghouse  hi  the  steam  turbine  came 
about  quite  logically  and  at  first  gradually;  but  when  he 
was  actually  committed  he  proceeded  with  his  normal 
energy  and  boldness.  The  Westinghouse  Machine  Com- 
pany, in  response  to  the  demand  for  increased  size  of  gen- 
erating units,  designed  and  produced  some  of  the  largest 
reciprocating  steam  engines  made  in  the  United  States. 
There  was  little  novelty  about  their  construction,  they  being 
built  in  accordance  with  well-established  engineering  prec- 
edent and  practice.  In  performance  they  were  entirely 
successful.  It  is  not  surprising,  hi  view  of  the  experience 
of  Westinghouse  in  connection  with  rotary-engine  experi- 
ments, that  the  huge  weight  and  bulk  of  these  enormous 
machines  should  have  directed  his  attention  to  the  steam 
turbine. 

"Every  schoolboy  knows"  that  a  reaction  steam  turbine 
was  described  by  Hero  of  Alexandria  130  B.  C.  Sadi  Car- 
not  says:  "There  is  almost  as  great  a  distance  between 
the  first  apparatus  hi  which  the  expansive  force  of  steam 
was  displayed  and  the  existing  machine  as  between  the 
first  raft  that  man  ever  made  and  the  modern  ship.  If  the 
honor  of  a  discovery  belongs  to  the  nation  in  which  it  has 
acquired  its  growth  and  all  its  developments,  this  honor 
cannot  be  here  refused  to  England.  Savery,  Newcomen, 
Smeaton,  Watt,  and  some  other  English  engineers  are  the 
veritable  creators  of  the  steam  engine."  This  is  a  generous 


PARSONS  AND  THE  TURBINE  185 

word  from  a  great  Frenchman.  And,  strange  to  say,  the 
steam  turbine  carries  on  the  same  story.  In  1884  Sir  Charles 
Parsons  made  a  ten-horsepower  turbine,  and  in  1885  took 
out  his  first  patents  and  launched  another  revolution  in 
steam  engineering.  From  Hero  to  Parsons  more  than  two 
thousand  years  passed,  and  in  those  years  nothing  was 
done  of  the  least  historical  or  mechanical  consequence  in 
the  development  of  the  steam  turbine.  Then,  in  a  very 
few  years,  Parsons  built  up  a  great  art  and  industry  which 
spread  to  the  continent  of  Europe  and  to  the  United  States. 
De  Laval,  a  distinguished  French  engineer,  must  not  be 
overlooked.  His  first  patent  seems  to  have  been  in  1883, 
but  he  confined  its  useful  development  to  small  and  very 
high-speed  machines,  and  Carnot's  estimate  of  relative 
honors  in  steam  engineering  still  holds;  an  English  en- 
gineer was  the  "veritable  creator"  of  the  steam  turbine. 

Parsons  went  ahead  fast.  By  1889  he  had  built  some 
300  turbines,  running  up  to  75-kilowatt  capacity.  In  the 
next  five  years  he  made  a  number  of  turbines  of  350-  to 
500-kilowatt  capacity,  and  the  historical  "Turbinia,"  the 
first  turbine  ship,  was  afloat. 

The  turbine  was  then  almost  unknown  in  the  United 
States.  Some  experimental  machines  had  been  devised 
which  are  known  only  to  students,  and  a  300-kilowatt  De 
Laval  turbine  had  been  imported  and  installed  as  an  ex- 
periment in  one  of  the  New  York  Edison  plants.  West- 
inghouse  had  watched  Parsons,  and  he  had  become  satis- 
fied that  the  turbine  was  a  suitable  prime  mover  for  electric 
generators  which  ran  at  the  speeds  that  are  necessary  for 
the  economical  performance  of  the  turbine.  In  1895  he 
took  a  license  under  the  Parsons  patents  for  manufacture 
in  the  United  States  for  other  than  marine  uses.  The  Par- 
sons-Westinghouse  turbine  soon  came  to  pass.  Operations 


186  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

were  begun  in  the  spring  of  1896,  and  the  usual  develop- 
ment work  was  carried  on  under  his  direction,  resulting  in 
modifications  and  improvements  leading  to  a  greater  adapta- 
bility of  the  design  to  conditions  then  existing  in  the  United 
States.  In  collaboration  with  the  engineers  of  the  West- 
inghouse  Electric  Company,  who  made  the  electrical  end 
of  the  unit,  the  first  commercial  machines  were  produced 
and  installed  in  the  plant  of  the  Westinghouse  Air  Brake 
Company  at  Wilmerding,  Pa.,  in  1898,  consisting  of  three 
400-kilowatt  machines,  which  are  still  in  operation.  Both 
operatively  and  in  the  matter  of  steam  consumption,  the 
performance  was  satisfactory,  comparing  favorably  with 
results  obtained  from  the  best  type  of  reciprocating  engines. 

The  market  for  large  electric  generators  had  already 
been  established,  and  Westinghouse  believed  that  great 
advantage  would  come  from  the  use  of  steam  turbines  if 
built  in  adequate  sizes  to  drive  them,  and  in  1899  there 
was  designed  and  built  a  turbo-generator  of  1500-kilowatt 
capacity,  running  at  1200  revolutions  per  minute,  which 
was  installed  in  the  plant  of  the  Hartford  Electric  Light 
Company — very  much  the  largest  machine  of  its  kind  yet 
produced.  The  performance  of  this  turbine  in  reduced 
steam  consumption  was  surprising,  and  while  certain  me- 
chanical difficulties  were  encountered,  that  were  subse- 
quently overcome,  it  established  beyond  question  the  value 
of  steam-turbine  prime  movers  in  the  production  of  elec- 
tricity. The  story  of  the  development  of  the  turbo-genera- 
tor itself  involves  a  great  deal  of  electrical  engineering  and 
is  made  the  subject  of  another  chapter. 

The  mechanical  difficulties  which  appeared  in  the  Hart- 
ford machine  were  entirely  due  to  its  unprecedented  size 
and  seemed  for  the  moment  to  indicate  the  ultimate  limit 
to  the  capacity  of  the  steam  turbine.  In  a  turbine,  what- 


CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  THE  TURBINE  ART        187 

ever  its  size,  the  clearances  must  be  small  if  economy  of 
steam  is  to  be  secured,  and  but  little  distortion  can  be  toler- 
ated in  either  the  stationary  or  the  moving  parts.  It  is 
clear  that  the  tendency  to  changes  in  the  form  and  relation 
of  the  parts,  due  to  weight,  motion,  and  temperature,  in- 
creases with  the  size,  particularly  with  the  length. 

In  England  these  mechanical  difficulties  were,  in  a 
measure,  avoided  by  building  the  turbine  in  two  sections, 
one  using  high-pressure  and  the  other  low-pressure  steam, 
a  construction  equivalent  to  the  ordinary  compound  recipro- 
cating steam  engine.  This  design,  however,  was  not  re- 
garded with  favor  by  Westinghouse,  as  he  felt  that  it 
unnecessarily  increased  size  and  cost,  and  his  efforts  were 
directed,  successfully,  to  the  solution  of  the  problem  by  a 
unitary  structure.  In  all  this  development  work  he  was 
the  leader  and  inspirer  of  a  staff  of  highly  competent  and 
interested  engineers,  with  whom  he  actively  collaborated. 

One  of  his  outstanding  contributions,  as  an  inventor,  to 
the  turbine  art  was  what  is  known  as  the  single-double-flow 
type,  which  was  the  natural  outcome  of  experimentation 
with  the  double-flow  form.  This  was  a  distinct  advance 
in  the  art.  The  single-double-flow  turbine  became  one  of 
the  most  successful  products  of  the  company,  technically 
and  commercially.  Somewhat  earlier  than  the  develop- 
ment of  the  single-double-flow  machine,  Westinghouse 
produced  a  type  combining  in  one  turbine  the  reaction  and 
impulse  principles.  This  materially  shortened  the  struc- 
ture for  a  given  capacity.  These  two  inventions  made  a 
standard  of  practice  for  high-speed  machines  of  large  ca- 
pacity. Patents  were  secured  on  them,  and  at  the  time  of 
this  writing  builders  of  large  turbines  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic  are  seeking  licenses  to  use  them. 

The  terms  "single-double-flow"  and  "impulse-reaction" 


188  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

are  not  quite  clear  to  us  all,  and  our  notions  about  the  tur- 
bine itself  may  be  a  little  vague.  The  following  uncom- 
monly clear  and  concise  explanation  is  helpful.  It  is  by 
Mr.  Herbert  T.  Herr,  vice-president,  Westinghouse  Elec- 
tric &  Manufacturing  Company,  who  has  long  had  especial 
charge  of  the  turbine  work: 

The  turbine  is  essentially  a  machine  for  developing  large 
powers,  and  it  reaches  its  maximum  economy  with  large 
capacity.  It  is  essentially  different  from  the  ordinary  steam 
engine  in  that  it  converts  the  energy  in  steam  into  mechan- 
ical work  by  utilizing  the  velocity  resulting  from  the  steam 
expansion,  either  by  action  or  reaction  of  a  steam  jet  on 
the  blades,  as  opposed  to  the  conversion  of  steam  into  energy 
in  reciprocating  engines  by  direct  pressure  of  the  steam  on 
a  piston. 

Multiple  stages  become  necessary  in  the  turbine  to  frac- 
tionally extract  the  energy  of  steam  in  its  expansion  from 
boiler  pressure  to  the  condenser  because  it  is  impossible  in 
mechanics  of  engineering,  as  now  known,  to  provide  ma- 
terials which  would  stand  the  stresses  and  speed  necessary 
to  extract  in  one  stage  efficiently  the  energy  of  a  jet  of  steam 
expanding  from  200  pounds  pressure  to  29  inches  vacuum, 
as  the  steam  speed  under  these  conditions  would  be  4300 
feet  per  second. 

In  turbines  of  large  capacity,  on  account  of  the  large 
volumes  of  steam  to  be  handled  in  the  low-pressure  stages, 
we  again  encounter  the  difficulty  of  materials  in  mechanical 
construction  to  efficiently  handle  them  through  the  blad- 
ing,  and  it  is  therefore  necessary  to  divide  the  steam  in  such 
cases,  and  flow  half  of  it  through  blading  of  half  the  area 
which  would  be  required  if  the  turbine  were  single-flow. 
In  other  words,  by  double-flowing  you  can  double  the  ca- 
pacity of  the  machine. 

While  the  double-flow  turbine  is  an  old  construction, 
Mr.  Westinghouse  conceived  the  idea  of  using  a  single-flow 
construction  in  the  upper  ranges  of  the  turbine  and  then, 
in  the  same  cylinder  casing,  dividing  the  steam  and  passing 


Is 


i  f 


CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  THE  TURBINE  ART         189 

it  through  two  independent  low-pressure  portions;  hence 
the  name  single-double-flow  turbine.  Of  course,  the  whole 
turbine  could  be  made  double-flow,  but  it  would  mean  a 
spindle  of  twice  the  length  of  a  single-flow  turbine,  and 
by  double-flowing  only  the  low-pressure  portion  the  ma- 
chine is  shortened  and  cheapened. 

With  reference  to  the  impulse-reaction  combination  it 
is,  of  course,  important  to  make  the  number  of  stages  as 
small  as  possible,  i.  e.,  the  number  of  rows  of  blades,  both 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  length  of  the  machine  and  cost. 
With  equal  blade  speeds  the  impulse  turbine  requires  one- 
quarter  the  number  of  blades  that  the  reaction  turbine  re- 
quires, the  reason  being  that  the  impulse  turbine  extracts 
energy  from  the  jet  impinging  on  the  blades  in  the  direc- 
tion of  rotation  of  the  blades,  and  again  by  reaction  of  the 
jet  on  the  blades  as  it  leaves  them  in  the  opposite  direction. 
In  the  reaction  turbine  there  are  only  the  forces  from  the 
reaction  .of  the  jet  as  it  leaves  the  blades,  since  the  expan- 
sion for  each  row  of  blades  takes  place  in  the  blades  them- 
selves, whereas  in  the  impulse  turbine,  there  is  no  expansion 
in  the  moving  row,  the  steam  speed  being  created  by  the 
expansion  in  the  stationary  nozzles. 

At  the  time  of  Mr.  Westinghouse's  investigation  it  was 
quite  well  known  that  the  impulse  turbine  was  not  as  ef- 
ficient as  the  reaction  turbine  for  a  given  condition  suitable 
to  both  types  of  machines,  and  that,  further,  the  efficiency 
of  the  high-pressure  reaction  turbine  is  less  than  the  low- 
pressure  turbine  because  the  blade  heights  are  less  and  the 
leakage  by  the  stages  is  consequently  greater  in  propor- 
tion. Mr.  Westinghouse  therefore  devised  the  scheme  of 
combining  in  a  single  machine  that  turbine  which  is  best 
suited  to  the  higher  pressures,  i.  e.,  the  impulse  type;  and 
that  turbine  which  is  best  suited  to  the  lower  pressures, 
i.  e.,  the  reaction  type.  This  resulted  in  the  so-called  im- 
pulse-reaction turbine  which  we  have  used  a  good  many 
years. 

These  are  the  most  important  of  Westinghouse's  engineer- 
ing contributions  to  the  turbine  art.  He  made  hundreds 


190  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

of  designs  of,  and  experiments  on,  details  which  are  of  great 
interest  to  the  student  but  which  it  does  not  seem  expedient 
to  describe  here,  although  they  further  illustrate  his  tire- 
less industry,  and  his  skill  and  ingenuity  in  mechanical 
design. 

Westinghouse's  own  inventions,  although  important, 
were  the  least  part  of  his  work  in  the  turbine  field.  He 
stimulated  others  to  invent  and  he  drove  development  and 
research.  Mr.  Herr  writes:  "Whether  he  was  in  Pittsburgh 
or  New  York  or  Lenox,  he  would  invariably  call  me  on  the 
telephone  several  times  a  day  to  inquire  how  things  were 
going.  His  usual  questions  would  be:  'How  are  you  now? 
Did  you  get  that  turbine  running  again?'  Then  would 
follow  a  great  many  terse  and  direct  questions."  He  saw 
that  the  time  had  come  and  his  prescience  started  the  tur- 
bine industry  in  the  United  States.  He  was  the  first  great 
manufacturer  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  to  take  it  up.  Others 
quickly  followed,  and  naturally  the  impulse  was  felt  in  Eng- 
land and  on  the  Continent,  where  the  steam  turbine  has 
become  the  most  important  prime  mover  in  industry  and 
in  the  navies. 

THE  REDUCTION   GEAR 

The  use  of  the  turbine  in  ships  brought  a  new  set  of  prob- 
lems. The  steam  turbine  to  be  efficient  must  run  at  high 
peripheral  speeds,  and  this  characteristic  tends  to  limit 
its  most  favorable  application  to  the  direct  driving  of  ma- 
chinery that  also  runs  satisfactorily  at  high  speeds.  The 
electric  generator  comes  within  that  class,  but  a  ship's 
propeller  does  not.  The  effective  speed  of  a  propeller  is 
slow.  When  it  is  run  too  fast  we  get  slip  and  cavitation. 
When  directly  coupled  together,  either  the  turbine  speed 
will  be  too  low  or  that  of  the  propeller  too  high  for  the 


THE  REDUCTION  GEAR  191 

efficiency  of  the  combination.  But  even  with  this  draw- 
back so  attractive  was  its  use  in  ships,  on  account  of  saving 
of  weight  and  absence  of  vibration,  that  as  soon  as  the  suc- 
cess of  large  turbines  was  demonstrated  in  the  electrical 
field,  installations  were  made  in  some  of  the  greatest  fast 
ships  then  afloat,  notably  the  Lusitania  and  Mauritania. 
The  discordant  speed  conditions  were  in  some  measure  cor- 
rected by  objectionable,  but  operatively  successful,  compro- 
mise proportions  of  both  turbine  and  propeller,  resulting  in 
a  smooth-running  and  fairly  efficient  propelling  mechanism 
when  the  vessel  ran  at  full  speed.  At  reduced  speeds  the 
consumption  of  fuel  was  prohibitive  because  of  the  low 
efficiency  of  the  turbine,  and  it  was  quite  clear  that  propellers 
directly  driven  by  turbines  could  not  be  advantageously 
used  in  moderate-speed  passenger  or  cargo  ships. 

This  whole  subject  was  ably  and  exhaustively  dealt  with 
in  a  special  report  made  to  Westinghouse  by  the  late  Rear- 
Admiral  George  W.  Melville  and  his  associate,  John  H. 
MacAlpine,  a  marine  engineer  of  much  experience,  and 
with  fine  engineering  attainments.  At  the  tune  of  their 
investigation  almost  the  only  field  for  research  was  in  Eng- 
lish practice,  and  this  was  covered  very  completely. 

In  the  light  of  the  facts,  it  was  obvious  that  a  speed-re- 
ducing mechanism,  permitting  the  turbine  and  propeller 
to  each  run  at  its  most  efficient  speed,  would  greatly  in- 
crease the  useful  range  of  application  of  the  steam  turbine 
for  marine  purposes,  as  by  far  the  larger  number  of  ships 
are  in  the  moderate-  or  low-speed  class. 

Gearing  in  some  form  as  a  speed-changing  medium  is 
probably  one  of  the  oldest  known  mechanical  expedients, 
and  its  successful  application  in  an  almost  unlimited  field 
when  operating  at  moderate  speeds  is  a  matter  of  common 
engineering  knowledge.  De  Laval  had  demonstrated  that 


192  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

speed-reducing  gearing  properly  designed,  accurately  con- 
structed, and  with  suitable  accessories  could  be  operated 
at  very  high  velocities  for  transmitting  limited  powers;  but 
for  large  powers  comparatively  slow  peripheral  gear  speeds 
had  been  adhered  to  because  of  the  difficulty  of  maintaining 
the  exacting  mechanical  conditions  essential  to  successful 
high-velocity  operation. 

A  fundamental  requirement  of  satisfactory  gear  opera- 
tion is  that  the  tooth  pressure  of  the  gears  at  point  of  con- 
tact must  not  exceed  that  at  which  they  can  be  operated 
without  abrasion.  Otherwise  destructive  wear  will  quickly 
render  them  inoperative.  To  insure  maintenance  of  ade- 
quate contact  surface,  perfect  axial  alignment  of  the  driving 
and  driven  shafts  carrying  the  gears  must  be  originally 
produced,  and  substantially  maintained,  and  this  presup- 
poses that  there  shall  be  little  or  no  distortion  or  deflection 
in  the  supports  carrying  the  gears  and  their  shafts,  and 
that  the  results  of  wear  due  to  operation  shall  not  affect 
the  relative  alignment  of  the  two  shafts. 

That  there  will  be  some  deflection  of  the  supporting  base, 
however  rigidly  constructed,  is  beyond  question,  for  a  ship's 
frame  is  far  from  being  a  stable  foundation,  neither  does  it 
accord  with  experience  that  four  or  more  independent  bear- 
ings supporting  fast-running  shafts  transmitting  heavy 
powers  will  wear  equally. 

To  overcome  the  effects  of  almost  inevitable  misalign- 
ment, with  its  possible  serious  consequences,  there  was 
submitted  by  Messrs.  Melville  and  MacAlpine  a  design 
of  a  geared  speed-reducing  mechanism,  in  which  one  of  the 
transmitting  shafts  carrying  the  gears  was  so  mounted  as 
to  automatically  maintain  exact  alignment  between  the  two 
shafts  under  all  reasonable  working  conditions.  The  de- 
sign was  original  and  bold.  It  has  been  called  a  perfect 


THE  FLOATING  GEAR  193 

mechanical  conception,  and  Westinghouse  was  sufficiently 
impressed  with  the  importance  and  possible  success  of  the 
proposed  plan  to  authorize  the  construction  of  a  machine 
designed  to  transmit  3000  horsepower,  and  it  was  com- 
pleted at  a  cost  exceeding  $75,000.  Had  he  been  a  man 
of  conservative  temperament,  there  would  have  first  been 
constructed  a  small  and  relatively  inexpensive  model,  but 
to  attack  the  problem  in  that  manner  would  have  been  for 
him  waste  of  time,  with  at  best  an  inconclusive  result,  for 
he  felt  that  only  through  the  operation  of  a  full-size  ex- 
ample, under  practical  working  conditions,  could  a  definite 
determination  be  reached.  The  trial  device  proved  suc- 
cessful beyond  all  expectation,  as  it  was  found  to  be  capable 
of  transmitting  5000  horsepower,  and  its  practical  opera- 
tion and  entire  adaptability  for  the  purpose  for  which  it 
was  designed  were  demonstrated  by  actual  service  in  the 
United  States  collier  Neptune. 

The  circumstances  under  which  this  interesting  experi- 
ment was  carried  on  are  worthy  of  notice.  In  the  midst  of 
its  development  and  construction  the  Westinghouse  Ma- 
chine Company  was  placed  under  the  control  of  receivers, 
acting  for  its  creditors,  and  both  engineering  and  financial 
pressure  was  brought  to  discontinue  the  experiment,  but 
with  characteristic  persistence  and  determination  West- 
inghouse succeeded  in  having  the  machine  completed.  His 
strong  conviction  as  to  the  great  importance  of  the  object 
in  view,  and  confidence  in  the  invention  of  Melville  and 
MacAlpine,  were  important,  if  not  controlling,  factors  in 
making  it  possible  to  realize  in  marine  service  the  important 
advantages  of  the  steam  turbine  when  substituted  for  recip- 
rocating engines,  and  the  demonstration  made  in  the  Nep- 
tune came  at  a  most  fortunate  tune,  for  the  steam  turbine 
thereby  became  available  for  war  ships.  By  the  spring  of 


194  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

1920  this  gear  was  in  service  in  twelve  destroyers,  three  bat- 
tleships and  two  auxiliaries  of  the  United  States  navy,  and 
orders  were  in  process  of  manufacture  for  scout  cruisers 
for  the  United  States  navy  with  90,000  horsepower  in  each 
ship,  and  for  battle  cruisers  of  150,000  or  160,000  horse- 
power for  a  foreign  navy.  There  were  211  ships  afloat 
fitted  with  the  flexible  gear,  and  101  on  order.  These, 
naturally,  are  pretty  big  ships,  although  the  average  is  low- 
ered by  the  destroyers.  It  was  estimated  that  there  was 
afloat  and  on  order  in  May  1920,  2,000,000  horsepower  in 
Westinghouse  geared-turbine  drive. 

The  advantages  of  what  Westinghouse  called  the  floating- 
frame  gear  were  summed  up  by  him  as:  Greatest  possible 
output  per  pound  of  metal;  automatic  elimination  of  un- 
equal tooth  pressures;  comparative  noiselessness;  gears 
well  cut  can  be  put  into  operation  without  costly  and  slow 
fitting  of  bearings  and  scraping  of  teeth.  Use  is  steadily 
establishing  his  claims,  with  all  that  they  imply,  and  that 
is  a  great  deal;  but  at  the  moment  of  this  writing  a  hot 
conflict  of  opinion,  international  in  its  scope,  is  going  on 
amongst  marine  engineers  as  to  the  relative  merits  of  flex- 
ible gears,  rigid  gears,  and  electric  drive.  The  conflict  is 
working  itself  out  in  a  huge  way  in  naval  and  commercial 
ships,  some  of  them  of  enormous  horsepower.  Westing- 
house  would  have  greatly  enjoyed  the  situation  if  he  could 
have  lived  to  take  part  in  it. 

Westinghouse  contributed  a  number  of  inventions  to  the 
flexible  gear.  Amongst  these  is  an  arrangement  that  in- 
cludes a  recording  dynamometer  showing  graphically  and 
accurately  the  amount  of  power  that  is  transmitted  to  the 
propellers.  But  in  this  case  the  credit  due  to  him  (and  it 
is  great)  is  not  so  much  for  his  own  inventions  as  for  his 
quick  and  tolerant  recognition  of  the  inventions  of  other 


TURBINE  SCHOONERS  195 

men,  and  for  the  force  with  which  he  drove  those  inven- 
tions forward  against  technical  doubt  and  financial  opposi- 
tion. 

SOME  BY-PRODUCTS 

The  by-products  of  Westinghouse's  imagination  were  al- 
ways entertaining  and  often  useful.  While  he  was  pushing 
along  his  plans  for  revolutionizing  marine  engineering  with 
the  geared  turbine,  he  thought  he  saw  a  chance  to  bring 
back  to  us  some  of  the  glories  and  profits  of  those  brave 
days  when  our  ships  carried  the  commerce  of  the  world,  and 
when  sailormen  out  of  Salem  took  British  troops  to  India 
and  helped  save  the  Empire.  It  was  a  pleasant  thought 
to  put  a  little  auxiliary  turbine  in  a  five-masted  schooner. 
With  fair  winds  the  schooner  would  slip  along  at  eight  knots 
and  the  screw  would  idle  in  the  water.  In  contrary  winds 
and  rough  seas  the  turbine  would  get  busy  and  the  schooner 
would  keep  up  her  eight  knots.  It  would  be  a  simple  matter 
(for  him)  to  handle  the  engine  from  the  pilothouse.  He 
actually  designed  and  built  a  750-horsepower  turbine  and 
gear  calculated  for  this  attractive  scheme,  and  meantime 
he  and  some  of  his  friends  passed  agreeable  hours  talking 
about  it. 

In  our  brief  account  of  the  development  of  the  geared 
turbine  it  was  said  that  the  efficient  speed  of  a  turbine  is 
high;  the  efficient  speed  of  a  propeller  is  low.  These  are 
hard  and  fast  facts  that  cannot  be  escaped.  But  it  occurred 
to  Westinghouse  that  the  propeller  might  perhaps  be  im- 
proved, and  he  entered  upon  an  extensive  series  of  experi- 
ments with  propellers.  He  designed,  tested,  and  rejected 
a  great  many  propellers  in  an  effort  to  discover  some  law. 

A  concrete  tank  was  built  about  eighteen  feet  in  diameter 
and  some  six  feet  deep.  A  propeller  shaft  was  put  through 


196  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

the  wall  of  the  tank,  the  propeller  being  placed  close  to  the 
inner  wall.  By  the  thrust  of  the  propeller  the  mass  of  water 
in  the  tank  was  set  in  motion,  revolving  in  the  tank.  The 
speed  at  which  the  water  moved  was  measured  by  suitable 
apparatus,  giving  a  reading  equivalent  to  the  speed  of  a 
boat  moved  through  the  water  by  a  like  propeller  thrust. 
The  inside  contour  of  the  tank  immediately  adjacent  to 
the  propeller  fairly  approximated  the  stern  contour  of  a 
ship.  The  propeller  was  actuated  by  a  500-horsepower 
turbine  built  especially  for  these  tests.  The  arrangement 
of  this  turbine  was  most  ingenious.  The  stator  or  casing 
was  free  to  rotate  except  for  an  arm  that  rested  on  a  weigh- 
ing machine.  As  the  turning  effort  on  the  turbine  shaft 
is  exactly  balanced  by  the  reaction  on  the  casing,  the  weigh- 
ing machine  showed  the  torque,  and  the  revolutions  being 
known,  the  power  developed  was  easily  computed.  The 
turbine  shaft  and  the  propeller  shaft  were  so  coupled  through 
a  thrust  block  that  no  thrust  from  the  propeller  was  trans- 
mitted to  the  turbine  rotor,  but  it  was  received  and  mea- 
sured through  the  thrust  block  acting  on  a  weighing  ma- 
chine. Now,  having  the  horsepower  delivered,  the  thrust 
of  the  propeller  and  the  speed  of  the  water  (or  of  the  ves- 
sel through  the  water),  we  can  find  the  loss  through  slip, 
cavitation,  etc.  So  we  have  the  means  of  making  accur- 
ate comparison  of  different  propellers.  By  making  enough 
tests  of  enough  designs  the  best  may  be  discovered.  The 
process  is  costly,  but  it  is  cheaper  than  trying  out  the  pro- 
pellers in  ships  at  sea. 

There  were  two  interesting  refinements  in  these  experi- 
ments: one  an  investigation  of  the  effect  of  lubricating  the 
propeller  blades  by  air,  the  other  an  effort  to  find  the  differ- 
ences of  pressure  on  different  parts  of  the  surface  of  the 
blade. 


LUBRICATED  PROPELLERS         197 

From  the  speed  with  which  the  propeller  cuts  through 
the  water,  and  the  considerable  blade  surface  exposed,  the 
friction  loss  must  be  quite  a  factor  in  the  energy  wasted. 
Westinghouse  conceived  the  idea  of  lubricating  the  propeller 
by  a  film  of  air.  Blades  were  made  with  air  pockets  near 
the  entering  edge  and  small  holes  drilled  into  these  pockets. 
Air  was  forced  into  these  pockets  to  flow  out  as  a  film  be- 
tween the  blades  and  the  water.  Many  tests  were  made 
with  different  air  pressures,  but  the  results  were  disappoint- 
ing. No  gain  in  efficiency  was  discovered.  Very  high  au- 
thority had  warned  Westinghouse  to  expect  this  result. 
In  one  of  his  letters  to  Lord  Kelvin,  written  some  months 
before  the  propeller  experiments,  he  says,  quite  incidentally: 
"I  am  also  about  to  try  an  idea  I  have  had  for  many  years, 
viz.,  the  air  lubrication  of  the  hull  of  a  ship  and  of  the  blades 
of  the  propeller.  The  tests  will  be  made  on  our  electric 
launch  on  Laurel  Lake.  To  produce  the  required  quantity 
of  air  I  have  had  made  a  rotary  blower  in  which  are  incor- 
porated, in  a  new  manner,  details  which  have  been  in  use 
some  years.  I  find  a  sheet  of  air  one-half  inch  thick  can  be 
paid  out  next  to  the  hull,  from  slots,  as  fast  as  the  ship 
moves.  The  Lusitania,  for  instance,  would  require  less  than 
600  horsepower  (to  deliver  the  air),  and  this  should  so  re- 
duce the  skin  friction  as  to  greatly  affect  the  speed.  I  have 
discovered,  however,  that  the  air  in  the  water  will  neces- 
sitate the  use  of  a  special  propeller,  to  avoid  cavitation, 
which  I  am  having  made  for  trial  on  the  launch." 

Lord  Kelvin  replies:  "I  do  not  think  it  possible  that 
good  results  can  be  got  by  air  lubrication  of  the  hull  of  a 
ship  or  of  the  blades  of  a  propeller.  Experiments  on  a  small 
scale  on  your  electrical  launch  might  seem  to  promise  good 
results,  but  I  feel  perfectly  sure  that  it  would  be  impossible 
to  get  good  results  on  the  large  scale  of  a  ship  at  sea.  The 


198  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

air  would  be  washed  away,  and  would  make  foam,  and 
would,  I  believe,  increase  the  turbulence  of  the  water  close 
to  the  bottom  and  sides  of  the  ship,  to  which  a  large  part 
of  the  resistance  at  high  speeds  is  due.  Air  introduced  in 
any  way  about  the  blades  of  a  propeller  would,  I  feel  sure, 
largely  increase  cavitation  troubles,  which  are  known  to 
be  adverse  to  the  efficiency  of  the  propeller." 

To  measure  the  pressure  at  different  places  on  the  sur- 
faces of  the  blades,  passages  were  cored  or  drilled  in  the 
propeller  castings,  and  the  air  passages  were  also  used.  Ex- 
periments were  made,  too,  to  determine  the  effect  of  different 
sizes  of  hubs.  Many  out  of  the  great  mass  of  notes  collected 
in  these  propeller  studies  have  been  tabulated  and  plotted 
for  convenient  comparison.  Perhaps  they  will  some  time 
be  generalized  by  a  competent  analyst  and  serve  as  the  start- 
ing point  for  further  laboratory  investigation  of  a  most 
complicated  art.  For  Westinghouse  this  propeller  inter- 
lude was  a  fascinating  pastime  at  a  time  when  he  greatly 
needed  diversion,  in  the  darkest  moments  of  his  life,  when 
some  of  his  companies  were  going  through  receivership. 

CONDENSER  IMPROVEMENTS 

It  will  be  recalled  that  at  one  time  Westinghouse  was  of 
the  opinion  that  because  of  their  high  thermal  efficiency, 
gas  engines  might  supplant  steam  engines  for  the  produc- 
tion of  electricity,  but  changed  his  views  when  the  use  of 
high-pressure  superheated  steam  with  high  vacuum  greatly 
increased  the  efficiency  of  the  steam  turbine.  Before  he 
engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  turbines,  Westinghouse  had 
little  experience  with  condensing  machinery  for  producing 
the  vacuum  necessary  for  the  most  efficient  operation  of 
steam  engines.  Its  importance,  however,  soon  attracted  his 
attention,  and  as  the  result  of  a  contract  entered  into  in 


LEBLANC'S  CONDENSER  199 

1897  with  Maurice  Leblanc,  a  French  physicist  and  engineer 
of  high  standing,  there  was  developed  at  the  works  of  the 
Westinghouse  Machine  Company,  in  accordance  with  the 
patents  of  M.  Leblanc,  an  improved  type  of  air  pump,  to  be 
used  in  connection  with  existing  types  of  condensers,  either 
jet  or  surface.  The  mechanism  employed  was  relatively 
light  in  weight,  cheap  to  manufacture,  and  exceedingly  sim- 
ple in  construction  and  operation.  Added  to  these  merito- 
rious features  it  possessed  the  still  more  important  quality 
of  creating  a  considerably  higher  vacuum  than  was  obtain- 
able with  any  other  type  of  air  pump  in  use.  The  increased 
vacuum  obtainable  by  the  Leblanc  system  materially  re- 
duced the  steam  consumption  of  turbines  as  compared  with 
any  other  existing  device  in  use  at  the  time  the  Leblanc 
air  pump  was  put  on  the  market,  and  it,  therefore,  became 
a  most  important  factor  in  that  overall  increase  of  turbine 
economy  that  has  for  the  present,  at  least,  established  it 
as  the  most  efficient  type  of  prime  mover  for  the  general 
production  of  large  powers. 

M.  Leblanc  gives  this  account  of  his  first  meeting  with 
Westinghouse : 

About  1897  the  owners  of  my  patents  started  a  suit  for 
infringement  against  the  General  Electric  Company.  This 
suit  took  on  Homeric  proportions :  the  defense  was  as  vigor- 
ous as  the  attack,  and  it  was  becoming  a  celebrated  case 
when,  in  the  year  1901,  I  was  stopped  on  the  Boulevard 
by  an  unknown  person,  who  addressed  me  in  the  following 
terms:  "Mr.  George  Westinghouse,  who  is  now  in  Paris, 
leaves  for  London  in  two  hours;  he  wishes  to  see  you  im- 
mediately, and  has  commissioned  me  to  find  you  and  to 
take  you  to  him,  dead  or  alive."  I  replied:  "Then  you 
mean  to  effect  an  abduction  or  to  kidnap  me.  Unfortu- 
nately this  can  no  longer  be  regarded  as  the  abduction  of  a 
minor.  Well  then,  kidnap  me,  I  have  no  objection."  He 


200  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

conducted  me  to  the  Rue  de  P  Arcade,  where,  for  the  first 
time,  I  saw  the  great  engineer,  who  said  to  me:  "So  it  is 
you  who  have  sworn  to  make  the  fortune  of  all  the  lawyers 
in  America.  Can  we  come  to  terms?  "  I  replied:  "I  ask 
for  nothing  better,  and  probably  my  associates  will  do  like- 
wise." That  was  all  for  that  day.  But  I  had  been  greatly 
struck  with  the  great  bearing  of  the  man  and  his  easy  good 
humor.  Some  months  later  he  bought  for  the  Westing- 
house  and  General  Electric  Companies  my  patents,  and 
the  inventor  into  the  bargain,  whom  he  appointed  con- 
sulting engineer  to  the  Societe  Anonyme  Westinghouse  in 
France.  That  was  the  starting  point  of  a  cooperation  of 
which  I  shall  always  be  proud,  my  first  impression  being 
duly  confirmed.  He  was  before  all  things  a  perfect  gentle- 
man and  a  great-hearted  man,  and  he  was  himself  a  mech- 
anician beyond  compare. 

He  inspired  me  not  only  with  great  admiration  but  also 
with  a  warm  affection,  which  I  believe  he  returned  to  some 
extent.  He  was  the  best  and  most  steadfast  of  friends.  I 
could  obtain  witnesses  amongst  all  his  old  co-workers  whom 
I  knew  and  whose  fortunes  he  had  made.  All  adored  as 
much  as  they  esteemed  him.  His  vigor  and  his  power  of 
work  were  extraordinary.  He  never  took  any  rest.  Start- 
ing with  next  to  nothing,  he  became  one  of  the  greatest  in- 
dustrial captains  in  the  world.  He  fell  in  action,  crushed 
like  a  Titan,  on  the  eve  of  the  Great  War,  which  he  had 
long  foreseen.  In  fact,  in  1903  he  said  to  me  that  the  first 
United  States  war  would  be  against  the  insupportable  Ger- 
mans. His  talent  as  an  organizer  would  have  been  of  the 
very  greatest  service,  and  this  for  us  is  a  further  cause  to 
regret  his  premature  end.  George  Westinghouse  was  a 
great  American,  and  no  man  had  a  greater  regard  for  his 
country.  He  lived  like  the  type  of  modern  inventors  and 
great  realizers.  His  memory  will  always  be  green  in  the 
hearts  of  those  who  surrounded  him  and  all  who  loved 
him. 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  TURBO-GENERATOR 

THE  turbo-generator  is  the  greatest  contrivance  for  the 
manufacture  of  power  yet  produced  by  man — greatest  in 
the  capacity  of  single  units,  in  the  extent  of  its  use,  and  in 
economy  of  result.  Its  usefulness  to  mankind,  already 
prodigious,  has  but  just  begun.  In  the  present  state  of 
knowledge  one  cannot  foresee  or  imagine  anything  that 
will  even  closely  approach  it  in  usefulness,  much  less  take 
its  place.  In  saying  this  we  do  not  limit  the  term  to  its 
present  strict  technical  meaning,  an  electric  generator  driven 
by  a  steam  turbine,  but  include  also  a  generator  driven 
by  a  water  turbine,  which  may  or  may  not  be  eventually 
the  biggest  power  unit.  A  steam  turbo-generator  of  45,000 
kilowatts  (60,000  horsepower)  is  now  in  service.  There  is 
another  one  in  service,  a  compound  turbine  of  three  cylin- 
ders, of  70,000  kilowatts  (93,000  horsepower).  The  biggest 
power  station  now  operating  generates  230,000  kilowatts 
with  fourteen  units;  but  there  is  one  building  of  360,000  kil- 
owatts, six  steam  units,  and  another  of  450,000  kilowatts 
with  ten  hydroelectric  units.  There  are  battle  cruisers  now 
building  to  have  180,000  horsepower  on  four  propeller 
shafts,  which  means  approximately  218,000  horsepower  ac 
the  turbines.  Working  current  is  now  carried  250  miles 
and  more,  and  men  are  talking  seriously  of  800  or  1000  miles 
transmission.  This  enormous  massing  of  the  manufacture 
of  power  and  the  capacity  to  transmit  it  great  distances 
are  amongst  the  most  important  elements  of  the  new  epoch 

201 


202  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

into  which  mankind  has  now  entered,  and  of  which  we  shall 
speak  later  more  circumstantially. 

The  leadership  of  George  Westinghouse  in  the  origin 
and  development  of  the  turbo-generator  was  an  important 
part  of  his  life.  He  took  up  the  steam  turbine  in  1896,  as 
is  told  in  the  chapter  on  steam  and  gas  engines.  He  saw 
at  once  that  the  field  for  the  turbine  was  in  heavy  power 
generation  by  polyphase  alternating  current,  and  he  began 
to  push  the  design  of  complete  alternating  turbo  units  paral- 
lel with  the  design  of  the  turbine  itself.  All  this  being  so, 
a  life  of  George  Westinghouse  would  be  quite  incomplete 
without  the  story  of  the  turbo-generator.  We  shall  try 
to  tell  that  story  briefly  and  with  as  little  technicality  as  is 
consistent  with  reasonable  completeness.  To  the  reader 
who  is  not  an  engineer  that  will  probably  seem  too  much; 
to  the  electrical  engineer  it  will  certainly  seem  too  little. 
Perhaps  to  the  civil  and  mechanical  and  mining  and  chem- 
ical engineer  the  compromise  will  seem  judicious.  One  of 
the  notorious  defects  of  a  compromise  is  that  it  is  not  often 
entirely  satisfactory  to  any  one. 

Perhaps  it  is  not  superfluous  to  repeat  that  a  turbo-gen- 
erator as  here  spoken  of  is  a  machine  to  generate  electric 
current,  driven  by  a  steam  turbine.  The  engine-type  gen- 
erator, which  will  be  often  mentioned,  is  a  reciprocating 
steam  engine  with  the  armature  of  the  generator  on  the 
engine  shaft. 

Seven  or  eight  years  before  the  turbine  development  be- 
gan, Westinghouse  was  playing  with  a  rotary  engine,  direct- 
coupled  to  an  alternator.  It  will  be  remembered  that  his 
first  patent,  taken  out  when  he  was  nineteen,  was  for  a  ro- 
tary engine,  and  he  did  not  drop  it  until  the  turbine  came 
along,  thirty  years  later.  The  experiments  of  which  we  now 
speak  were  carried  on  in  a  little  shop  occupied  by  the  Elec- 


FIRST  TURBO-GENERATORS  203 

trie  Company,  then  about  three  years  old.  Power  for  at 
least  part  of  the  shop  was  supplied  by  this  experimental  unit, 
which  went  out  of  service  often  and  sometimes  abruptly, 
and  it  was  not  uncommon  to  hear  the  men  say  "there  goes 
that  dashed  rotary  again,"  or  words  to  that  effect.  The 
apparatus  was  really  a  plaything,  but  Westinghouse  took 
his  sports  as  seriously  as  he  did  his  work.  The  difference 
between  work  and  play  was  in  time  used  and  not  in  the  in- 
tensity of  interest. 

The  first  turbo-generator  units  put  in  service  by  the  Elec- 
tric Company  were  three  for  the  Air  Brake  Company.  They 
were  of  300-kilowatt  (400-horsepower)  capacity  at  3600 
revolutions  per  minute,  440  volts,  60  cycles,  polyphase. 
This  type  had  rotating  armatures,  and  at  3600  revolutions 
per  minute  the  armature  end  winding  would  distort  into 
all  sorts  of  shapes  under  centrifugal  force,  even  when  tied 
down  so  that  it  would  not  burst.  Supporting  end-bells, 
if  made  of  bronze,  would  distort,  or  even  burst;  if  made 
of  steel,  they  were  magnetically  very  bad  and  would  over- 
heat. A  decision  was  quickly  reached  that  the  future  ma- 
chine would  have  to  be  of  a  rotating-field  type,  with  the 
field  windings  so  embedded  or  protected  against  centrifugal 
force  that  stretching  or  bursting  would  be  physically  im- 
possible. The  support  of  the  field  windings,  especially  in 
view  of  the  insulating  materials  available,  was  thus  one  of 
the  earliest  problems  encountered  in  turbo-alternators. 

By  1899  the  rotating-field  type  was  decided  on.  West- 
inghouse was  personally  much  interested  in  this  part  cf 
the  construction,  and  would  telephone  almost  every  day 
asking  whether  anything  satisfactory  or  promising  had 
been  worked  out.  He  was  very  prolific  in  suggestions  for 
the  rotor  construction,  but,  not  being  experienced  in  the 
difficulties  of  insulation,  the  engineers  had  to  turn  down 


204  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

his  suggestions  daily.  However,  as  good  reasons  were  given, 
he  took  it  all  good-naturedly.  Finally  it  was  decided  that 
the  rotor  must  be  one  with  many  relatively  small  slots  to 
subdivide  the  field  winding  into  a  large  number  of  small 
coils,  so  that  each  could  be  supported  without  unduly  crush- 
ing the  insulation  and  becoming  displaced.  This  developed 
into  the  "parallel-slot"  construction,  which  was  used  by 
the  Westinghouse  Company  for  many  years,  and  which 
really  made  the  Westinghouse  type  a  pacemaker  in  the 
race  toward  higher  speeds,  which  came  in  the  following 
years. 

The  3600-revolutions-per-minute,  parallel-slot  rotor  for 
the  60-cycle  generator,  when  first  designed,  was  made 
cylindrical  in  general  form,  but  with  two  sides  flattened. 
On  test  this  made  such  a  frightful  noise  that  it  was  con- 
sidered impossible.  Westinghouse,  who  was  greatly  in- 
terested, saw  this  first  rotor  on  test  in  the  East  Pittsburgh 
shops,  and  was  much  disturbed  by  the  noise.  He  asked  if 
this  was  the  best  that  could  be  done.  The  answer  was  to 
the  effect  that  this  was  the  best  for  the  present.  Westing- 
house  seemed  much  disappointed,  and  when  a  few  days 
later  he  was  told  that  the  noise  could  probably  be  over- 
come in  a  very  simple  manner,  he  snapped  at  the  sugges- 
tion and  wanted  to  know  how.  It  was  explained  that  by 
making  the  rotor  entirely  cylindrical,  without  the  flat  sides, 
and  cutting  in  the  parallel  grooves  and  finally  turning  off 
the  supporting  wedges  to  give  a  finished  cylindrical  face 
after  the  rotor  was  wound  and  wedged,  a  comparatively 
quiet  construction  should  be  obtained.  Westinghouse 
thought  about  it  a  moment  and  then  laughed  and  said: 
"Things  are  easy  when  you  know  how."  He  authorized 
the  improved  construction  to  be  taken  up  at  once,  and  this 
eventually  proved  quite  satisfactory,  and  was  used  for  some 


GROWTH  OF  THE  TURBO-GENERATOR          205 

ten  years  with  great  success.  With  other  improvements, 
such  as  the  bolted-on  shaft  arrangement  and  artificial  cool- 
ing, this  type  of  rotor  enabled  the  3600-revolutions-per- 
minute  turbo-generator  to  be  carried  by  successive  steps 
from  400  kilowatts  up  to  6250  kilowatts,  an  increase  of  over 
fifteen  tunes.  In  the  25-cycle,  2-pole,  1500-revolutions-per- 
minute  machine  this  construction  was  carried  from  750  kilo- 
watts up  to  10,000  kilowatts  (say  13,400  horsepower),  an 
increase  of  about  fourteen  times.  This  was  done  within  a 
very  few  years. 

To  appreciate  the  effect  of  the  turbo-generator  on  other 
types  of  apparatus,  it  is  necessary  to  consider  the  rapid 
growth  of  the  turbo-generator  when  it  once  got  started. 
By  1902,  6000-kilowatt  units  were  being  built.  One  must 
remember  that,  only  three  years  before,  in  1899,  the  huge 
6000-kilowatt  75-revolutions-per-minute,  engine-type  alter- 
nators for  the  Manhattan  Elevated  were  contracted  for 
and  were  assembled  about  a  year  later.  Within  a  year  or 
so  the  6000-kilowatt  generators  for  the  New  York  Subway 
were  also  assembled.  Seventeen  of  these  machines  were 
built  for  the  two  stations.  The  outside  diameter  of  the  arma- 
ture frames  was  forty-two  feet.  There  was  no  place  in  the 
existing  shops  at  East  Pittsburgh  high  enough  to  assemble 
them.  A  new  aisle  was  built  with  overhead  travelling  cranes 
forty-four  feet  above  the  floor.  The  rings  were  made  in 
four  parts  to  ship  by  rail.  That  involved  extreme  accuracy 
in  fitting.  There  were  no  templates  or  shop-measuring 
devices  big  enough  for  the  purpose,  and  a  transit  was  used 
to  line  up  the  parts.  It  is  no  wonder  that  the  relatively 
small  turbo-generator  unit  quickly  drove  these  immense 
machines  out  of  the  market.  The  engine-type  generator 
was  right  in  its  prime,  but  within  two  or  three  years  it 
was,  from  the  commercial  standpoint,  obsolescent.  Every- 


206  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

body  was  waiting  for  the  coming  turbo-generator,  with  the 
impression  that  the  day  of  the  engine-type  alternator  was 
over.  In  consequence,  this  business  went  to  almost  nothing 
within  practically  a  year's  tune,  and,  in  fact,  the  engine 
type  went  down  before  the  turbo-generator  was  really 
ready  to  take  its  place. 

This  obsolescence  of  the  engine-type  alternator  was  al- 
most pitiful.  Here  was  a  branch  of  heavy  engineering, 
built  up  at  great  cost  and  backed  by  years  of  experience. 
In  the  coming  of  the  turbo-generator  this  experience  was 
mostly  thrown  away,  for  the  engineering  required  in  the 
turbo-generator  work  was  so  radically  different  from  that 
of  the  engine-type  generator  that  the  designers  had  to  start 
practically  anew  and  build  up  entirely  new  experiences  at 
enormous  expense  and  through  years  of  effort.  However, 
in  the  development  of  the  turbo-alternator  there  was  one 
favorable  feature;  namely,  there  was  a  large  field  open  for 
the  apparatus.  It  was  not  a  question  of  building  up  a  new 
field  of  use,  as  was  the  case  of  the  earlier  types  of  apparatus. 
Also  the  call  for  larger  alternators,  from  1898  to  1902,  in- 
dicated that  the  engine  type  of  construction  of  the  future 
was  going  to  be  hard  put  to  it  to  meet  the  demands  for  still 
larger  units.  In  fact,  the  Manhattan  and  Subway  machines 
of  nominal  6000-kilowatt  rating  (really  7500)  were  sup- 
posed to  be  almost  as  large  as  was  practicable,  and  yet  people 
believed  that  larger  units  than  these  would  be  necessary 
at  some  time  in  the  future.  It  was,  therefore,  recognized 
that  the  engine  type  was  handicapped  for  still  larger  sizes, 
whereas  engineers  had  a  feeling  that  the  opposite  might  be 
true  for  the  turbo-alternator,  that  is,  it  might  eventually 
make  its  best  showing  in  the  larger  units. 

From  1902  to  1906  or  1907  the  turbo-alternator  had  a 
hard  time.  It  had  driven  the  engine  type  out  of  the  market, 
but  it  was  not  easy  to  replace  it,  not  because  the  turbo- 


Turbo-generator  and  engine-type  generator.     Comparative  sizes  of  machines 
and  foundations;  equal  powers. 


GENERATORS  ENCLOSED  AND  COOLED          207 

alternator  itself  was  unsatisfactory,  but  because  it  was  not 
yet  advanced  far  enough  in  the  manufacturing  and  com- 
mercial end  to  meet  the  needs.  Each  successive  large  ma- 
chine pointed  the  way  to  something  better  in  the  next  one. 
Noise,  one  of  the  great  objections  to  the  earlier  machines, 
even  after  the  smooth  cylindrical  rotor  was  devised,  had 
to  be  overcome,  and  this  was  accomplished  principally  by 
enclosing  the  generator  and  furnishing  artificial  ventila- 
tion. This  was  carried  out  on  commercial  machines  while 
being  got  ready  for  the  market.  With  the  enclosure  and 
consequent  less  noise,  and  the  then  necessary  addition  of 
artificial  ventilation  due  to  the  enclosure,  a  great  advance 
was  permissible  in  ratings,  and  this  accompanied  the  great 
growth  in  capacity  mentioned  above.  To  show  how  fast 
this  work  was  growing,  orders  were  placed  in  the  shop  for 
an  experimental  enclosed  machine  to  determine  the  pos- 
sibilities of  enclosure  and  artificial  ventilation,  but  before 
this  experimental  machine  could  be  completed  and  tested, 
the  use  of  such  enclosure  and  artificial  cooling  had  been 
forced  on  the  standard  machines,  due  to  commercial  needs, 
and  had  become  established  practice.  In  this  matter  of 
enclosing  and  artificial  cooling,  there  was  much  severe  criti- 
cism. The  criticism  was  made  frequently  that  the  Westing- 
house  machines  necessarily  were  badly  designed  because 
they  had  to  be  boxed  up  and  big  blowers  added.  No  other 
types  of  generators,  according  to  such  criticism,  needed 
artificial  cooling,  and,  therefore,  the  Westinghouse  machines 
were  very  bad,  indeed,  if  they  needed  such  remedies.  How- 
ever, the  public  accepted  such  machines  and  wanted  more 
of  them,  and  before  long  other  manufacturers  began  to  box 
in  their  machines  and  pipe  air  to  them.  They  went  through 
the  same  stages  as  Westinghouse  and  eventually  came  to 
the  same  general  practice. 
The  two  great  competitors  in  this  turbo-generator  work 


208  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

were  the  Westinghouse  and  General  Electric,  the  former 
with  horizontal-shaft  units,  and  the  latter  with  vertical. 
It  was  General  Electric  practice  to  fight  the  Westinghouse 
high  speeds.  There  was  a  good  reason  for  this;  the  Gen- 
eral Electric  vertical-type  units  became  increasingly  difficult 
to  construct  and  operate  as  the  speeds  were  increased,  and, 
consequently,  when  the  Westinghouse  large-capacity  turbo- 
generators were  pushed  to  the  ultimate  limit  of  two  poles, 
it  was  too  much  for  the  General  Electric  type,  and  this  had 
to  be  changed  from  the  vertical  to  the  horizontal.  It  is 
amusing  now  to  look  back  over  the  criticism  of  Westing- 
house  practice.  It  was  pointed  out  that  nobody  else,  either 
in  Europe  or  in  America,  advocated  such  high  speeds  as 
Westinghouse  and,  therefore,  Westinghouse  must  be  wrong. 
However,  these  speeds  are  now  standard  practice  all  over 
the  world. 

It  is  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  effects  of  the  turbo-alter- 
nator on  the  electrical  industry  of  today.  It  is  hard  to 
see  how  the  situation  could  have  been  met  by  the  engine- 
type  alternator,  especially  in  view  of  the  20,000-  to  40,000- 
kilowatt  (53~,000-horsepower)  turbo  units  of  today.  The 
saving  in  space  required  has  been  of  immense  value,  espe- 
cially in  large  cities.  The  fuel  economy  of  the  huge  turbo- 
generators is  of  vital  importance.  The  great  generator 
units  and  generating  plants  have  driven  out  of  business 
many  of  the  small  isolated  plants  and  even  some  of  the 
larger  individual  plants.  The  central  station  with  its  turbo 
units  can  manufacture  and  sell  power  at  a  rate  which  tends 
to  kill  off  all  competition,  and  its  growth  is  most  interest- 
ing. Cities  which  a  few  years  ago  bought  units  of  2000 
kilowatts  now  buy  generating  units  of  20,000  kilowatts,  and 
larger  cities,  which  a  few  years  ago  bought  units  of  5000 
kilowatts,  or  even  10,000  kilowatts,  now  are  buying  units 


ANALYTICAL  ENGINEERING  209 

of  from  30,000  to  60,000  kilowatts.  It  is  hard  to  see  that 
this  could  be,  without  the  turbo-generator. 

The  development  of  the  turbo-generator  required  the 
highest  analytical  engineering.  Take  a  high-speed  alterna- 
tor, for  instance,  one  of  3600  revolutions  per  minute.  This 
cannot  be  designed  by  cut  and  try,  for  there  must  be  no 
undue  experimental  elements  in  the  construction,  at  the 
terrific  speed  at  which  these  machines  run;  namely,  at  about 
25,000  feet  peripheral  speed  per  minute.  The  same  is  true 
of  the  turbine,  for  here  even  higher  speeds  may  be  attained. 
The  designers  of  the  turbo-generator  sets  have,  in  many 
cases,  worked  far  ahead  of  any  available  data,  and,  accord- 
ingly, have  had  to  depend  mostly  upon  analysis.  Consider- 
ing the  difficulties  of  the  problem,  the  record  has  been  good. 
True,  difficulties  have  arisen  from  time  to  time,  which  analy- 
sis did  not  cover.  For  instance,  protection  against  the  ef- 
fect of  short  circuits  in  the  larger  machines  had  to  be  worked 
out  largely  by  actual  test.  The  20,000-kilowatt  turbo- 
alternator  may  give  momentarily  ten  to  fifteen  times  its 
rated  current  on  short  circuit,  corresponding  to  200,000-  to 
300,000-kilowatt  load,  as  far  as  distorting  forces  are  con- 
cerned. The  effects  of  such  short  circuits  are  so  enormous 
that  in  some  of  the  earlier  large  units,  the  end  windings 
"twisted  up  like  a  wet  towel,"  as  one  customer  explained. 
One  large  generator,  after  a  short  circuit,  ran  melted  iron 
down  through  itself  for  several  minutes.  With  increased 
experience,  engineers  have  been  able  to  meet  this  situation, 
until  now  generating  powers  of  enormous  capacities  can 
be  tied  together  in  one  system  without  undue  danger.  A 
few  years  ago  it  was  suggested  that  50,000  kilowatts  was 
the  greatest  capacity  which  it  was  safe  to  tie  to  one  bus- 
bar system,  but  now  they  talk  about  five  to  ten  times  this. 

Another  problem  which  has  been,  to  a  large  extent,  the 


210  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

outgrowth  of  the  turbo-generator  is  that  of  switching  such 
large  powers.  As  said  above,  a  20,000-kilowatt  unit  may 
give  ten  to  fifteen  times  the  rated  current  on  short  circuit. 
With  a  number  of  such  units  tied  together,  obviously  the 
problem  of  rupturing  a  short  circuit  on  any  kind  of  a  switch 
is  a  tremendous  one.  The  oil  breaker  of  the  present  time 
is  an  attempt  to  do  this,  and  the  problem  of  the  successful 
oil  breaker  has  been  considered  as  solved  from  time  to  time. 
However,  with  the  growth  of  the  turbo-generator  units  and 
the  growth  in  the  size  of  the  stations,  with  more  and  more 
units  tied  together,  the  oil  breaker  has  had  increasing  dif- 
ficulty in  keeping  up  with  the  situation,  and  it  may  be  said 
that  the  race  between  the  generating  station  and  the  breaker 
is  still  on. 

To  see  one  of  these  great  stations  equipped  with  huge 
turbo-generating  units,  one  would  get  the  impression  that 
the  generating  unit,  in  itself,  is  really  a  minor  part  of  the 
plant,  so  great  is  the  amount  of  auxiliaries  necessary,  in 
the  form  of  switchboards,  breakers,  and  protective  devices. 
The  boiler  plant  is  not  a  secondary  element  either.  More- 
over, ventilation  has  become  serious  in  such  stations.  The 
amount  of  air  required  to  cool  a  large  alternator  is  such 
that  each  unit  puts  through  itself  practically  its  own  weight 
of  air  in  from  forty  to  sixty  minutes,  and  these  machines  are 
no  toys  either.  A  station  of  200,000  kilowatts  would  require 
approximately  600,000  cubic  feet  of  air  per  minute  for  venti- 
lation alone.  If  this  air  is  discharged  directly  into  the  gen- 
erator room,  provision  must  be  made  for  discharging  from 
the  room.  This  may  mean  replacing  the  entire  amount  of 
air  in  the  room  every  ten  or  fifteen  minutes. 

The  turbo-generator  has  brought  with  it  many  problems, 
which  are  not  those  of  the  turbo-generator  itself,  but  which 
have  to  do  with  the  manufacture  of  power  in  enormous 


SOME  TROUBLES  211 

amounts.  In  fact,  here  we  are  dealing  with  something  in 
the  nature  of  high  explosives.  For  instance,  a  little  short 
circuit  in  an  instrument  transformer,  in  one  of  the  great 
New  York  power  houses,  blew  the  windows  out  of  the  build- 
ing. A  short  circuit  in  one  of  the  generators  itself  is  often 
in  the  nature  of  a  real  disaster,  as  has  been  told  above. 
Strange  means  have  been  devised  for  suppressing  fires  which 
sometimes  occur  in  these  highly  ventilated  machines.  Live 
steam  in  large  quantities  has  been  used  to  put  out  such 
fires.  Here  we  are  dealing  with  huge  powers,  the  dangers 
are  huge,  and  the  preventive  and  protective  means  must 
be  correspondingly  huge.  The  turbo-generator  has  brought 
its  own  troubles  and  sometimes  one  is  tempted  to  wish  that 
the  thing  had  never  been  heard  of.  Then  he  may  take  some 
comfort  in  the  saying  of  a  philosopher,  that  progress  has 
been  by  a  series  of  catastrophes. 


CHAPTER  XII 
SIGNALLING  AND  INTERLOCKING 

AT  the  outset  of  a  consideration  of  the  work  of  George 
Westinghouse  in  railroad  signalling  and  interlocking,  it 
seems  desirable  to  say  a  few  words  by  way  of  definition 
which  to  many  readers  will  seem  elementary,  but  which 
to  many  more  readers  are  necessary  to  an  understanding 
of  the  nature  and  the  importance  of  the  art. 

The  function  of  signals  is  not  merely,  perhaps  not  prin- 
cipally, to  stop  trains.  An  important  function  is  to  keep 
trains  moving — to  keep  them  moving  with  such  frequency, 
such  regularity,  and  at  such  speeds  as  will  get  the  best  eco- 
nomic results,  in  service  and  in  cost,  under  the  conditions 
which  control  a  given  situation.  These  conditions  differ 
widely,  from  the  single-track,  cross-country  road  with 
half  a  dozen  daily  trains,  to  the  city  transit  road  with  four 
tracks  and  trains  following  each  other  at  intervals  of  108 
seconds.  Signals  tell  a  train  when  to  reduce  speed,  when 
to  stop,  when  to  start,  when  to  proceed  under  control,  and 
when  to  go  ahead  at  speed.  Such  information  is  highly 
important  when  different  kinds  of  trains,  fast  and  slow, 
local  and  express,  freight  and  passenger,  are  moving  on 
the  same  track.  It  is  absolutely  necessary  to  getting  the 
maximum  service  out  of  a  dollar  invested  in  track. 

Block  signals  seek  to  preserve  an  absolute  interval  of 
space  between  trains.  The  length  of  this  space  interval 
must  vary  with  the  grades  and  curves  and  with  the  kind 
of  traffic  and  the  maximum  speed  of  trains  working  over 
a  given  piece  of  track.  In  a  paper  prepared  by  Westing- 

212 


WHAT  INTERLOCKING  IS  213 

house  in  1913,  and  never  published,  are  some  figures  of  train 
stops  which  show  the  difference  in  block-signal  spacing  de- 
manded for  different  speeds.  A  train  of  ten  cars,  hauled 
by  two  locomotives,  was  fitted  with  the  most  perfect  brake 
equipment.  Stops  were  made  from  90  miles  an  hour  in 
2900  feet;  from  60  miles  an  hour  in  1100  feet;  from  20 
miles  an  hour  hi  120  feet.  These  were  under  ideal  condi- 
tions. Under  the  conditions  of  good  every-day  practice 
stops  were  made  from  90  miles  an  hour  in  4450  feet,  and 
from  60  miles  an  hour  in  1750  feet.  Obviously  fast  traffic 
demands  longer  blocks  than  slow  traffic;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  longer  the  blocks  the  fewer  the  trains  that  can 
be  passed  over  the  road.  Signal  engineering  is  a  compli- 
cated art  and  worth  the  attention  of  a  man  of  even  West- 
inghouse's  ability. 

Interlocking  provides  for  such  control  and  operation  of 
switches  and  signals  that  they  must  move  in  certain  se- 
quences, and  that  it  shall  be  mechanically  impossible  for 
them  to  move  in  any  other  order.  Switches  are  interlocked 
with  other  switches  and  with  the  signals  that  govern  move- 
ment through  them,  and  the  signals  are  so  interlocked  as 
to  make  conflicting  signals  impossible.  The  levers  which 
move  the  switches  and  signals  are  assembled  in  one  ma- 
chine and  there  interlocked.  If  a  man  were  blindfold 
and  pulled  the  levers  at  random  he  could  stop  traffic  but 
he  could  not  produce  a  collision.  As  many  as  215  electro- 
pneumatic  levers  have  been  assembled  in  one  machine. 
The  possible  combinations  of  these  are  many  millions,  the 
safe  combinations  some  hundreds,  and  as  interlocked  only 
the  safe  combinations  can  be  made. 

When  Westinghouse  became  interested  in  interlocking 
and  block  signalling  those  arts  were  well  developed  in  Great 
Britain,  but  were  almost  unknown  in  the  United  States. 


214  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

Block  signalling  began  in  England  about  1846  and  inter- 
locking began  in  1856.  By  1890  all  British  railways  doing 
passenger  business  were  thoroughly  signalled  and  inter- 
locked. The  first  interlocking  machine  seen  in  the  United 
States  was  an  English  machine  brought  over  in  1876  for 
the  Centennial  Exposition.  By  1900  many  big  railroad- 
yards,  junctions  and  crossings  were  interlocked,  but  many 
more  were  still  unprotected.  Block  signalling  had  begun 
on  a  few  railway  systems,  but  hardly  more  than  begun. 
Even  yet  we  have  not  reached  the  completeness  of  pro- 
tection of  the  British  railways,  but  in  mechanical  methods 
of  signalling  and  interlocking  we  have  gone  far  beyond  the 
rest  of  the  world,  and  this  is  due  in  great  degree  to  the  im- 
pulse and  direction  that  Westinghouse  gave  to  the  art. 

When  Westinghouse  entered  this  field  in  1880,  he  found 
it  entirely  unoccupied  here.  He  had  not  only  to  design  and 
make  apparatus,  but  he  had  to  create  his  market,  and  the 
market  grew  very  slowly.  For  twenty  years  the  company 
which  he  organized,  the  Union  Switch  and  Signal  Company, 
struggled  along  in  the  tedious  process  of  educating  the 
buyers  of  its  product,  and  then  it  came  into  great  pros- 
perity. Westinghouse  had  supported  it  through  these  lean 
years  by  his  personal  credit,  and  he  laid  the  foundations 
of  its  success  by  his  perception  of  the  future  course  of  the 
art  and  by  his  own  contributions  to  its  technical  growth. 

A  basic  contribution  by  Westinghouse  to  the  signalling 
and  interlocking  art  was  the  development  of  the  use  of 
power.  He  was  not  the  first  inventor  to  take  out  patents 
in  power  interlocking  and  signalling;  probably  he  was  not 
the  first  to  conceive  the  idea.  He  was,  however,  the  first 
inventor  to  conceive  and  develop  methods  and  apparatus 
that  went  into  actual  and  lasting  use,  that  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  general  practice,  and  that  are  still  in  use  sub- 


STATE  OF  THE  SIGNAL  ART  215 

stantially  as  he  first  worked  them  out  and  installed  them 
in  the  railroads.  In  actual  priority  of  patented  invention 
he  was  close  to  the  first.  In  priority  of  conception  he  may 
have  been  the  first.  That  no  man  can  tell.  Westinghouse 
was  not  the  first  man  to  invent  an  air  brake.  James  Watt 
was  not  the  first  man  to  invent  a  steam  engine  with  a 
piston  and  cylinder.  But  they  invented  mechanisms  that 
worked,  and  they  made  revolutions  in  economic  life,  and 
mankind  is  quite  satisfied  to  remember  them,  while  Papin, 
Newcommen,  and  Nehemiah  Hodge  are  names  known  only 
to  inquiring  students. 

To  understand  the  meaning  of  Westinghouse's  work  in 
invention  and  design  in  the  signal  and  interlocking  field 
from  1880  until  his  death,  a  few  general  facts  should  be 
known  that  indicate  the  means  available  at  the  various 
periods  of  his  inventions,  and  also  explain  the  sentiment 
then  existing  toward  what  were  and  what  were  not  permis- 
sible methods  in  switch  and  signal  control  and  operation. 

Prior  to  1880  the  air  brake  was  substantially  the  only 
application  of  compressed  air  to  railway  working.  The 
telegraph  was  the  only  well-established  institution  employ- 
ing electricity  in  the  service.  To  some  extent,  but  in  a  crude 
way,  electricity  had  been  adapted  to  the  operation  of  cer- 
tain forms  of  block  signals  and  to  the  various  indicators, 
locks,  bells,  and  annunciators  then  used  in  both  the  block 
and  interlocking  field.  Electric  lighting  was  confined  to 
the  series-arc  method  almost  exclusively,  and  electric 
motors  applied  to  locomotion  and  to  power  purposes  in 
general  were  practically  unknown,  and  very  imperfectly 
developed. 

Hydraulic  pressure  had  long  been  recognized  as  a  flexible 
medium  of  great  possibilities  in  many  capacities,  and  espe- 
cially as  affording  means  whereby  a  relatively  feeble  energy 


216  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

applied  over  considerable  time  might  produce  great  me- 
chanical effects,  as  in  hydraulic  lifts,  jacks,  etc.  Conse- 
quently, attempts  had  been  made  to  apply  this  force  to 
switch  and  signal  operation,  and  with  some  success  at  the 
period  of  Westinghouse's  entry  into  this  field.  Naturally, 
he  began  with  the  belief  that  in  the  hydraulic  principle  lay 
the  quickest,  if  not  the  surest,  road  to  success,  and,  hence, 
his  first  patents  use  hydraulic  pressure  rather  than  pneu- 
matic pressure,  though  "fluid  pressure,"  as  he  designates 
it,  covers  both  elements.  He  was  quick  to  see,  however,  the 
difficulties  inherent  in  the  use  of  a  liquid,  not  alone  because 
it  must  be  non-freezing  and,  hence,  more  or  less  expensive 
to  maintain;  but  also,  because  not  being  compressible, 
it  did  not  lend  itself  to  the  rapid  action  of  impacting  de- 
vices (such  as  the  art  then  included)  for  setting  it  hi  mo- 
tion without  the  development  of  excessive  pressures  within 
its  conductors  due  to  its  inertia.  These  and  many  minor 
reasons  precluded  the  successful  adaptation  of  hydraulic 
pressure  to  the  automatic  operation  of  block  signals  by 
treadle  devices  actuated  by  train  wheels,  as  embraced  in 
one  of  his  early  patents.  With  his  prior  experience  in  air- 
brake operation,  it  was  but  natural  that  he  drifted  away 
from  hydraulic  and  to  pneumatic  developments. 

Though  early  conceiving  the  great  advantages  of  elec- 
tricity as  a  medium  for  the  control  of  compressed  air,  auto- 
matically or  otherwise,  from  a  distance,  in  the  application 
of  that  pressure  to  switch  and  signal  mechanisms,  he  shared, 
at  the  time,  with  railway  men  in  general,  the  aversion  to 
the  use  of  electrical  devices  in  close  proximity  to,  if  not 
actually  upon;  the  railway  tracks.  Consequently,  though 
having  contrived  an  extremely  simple,  efficient,  and  remark- 
ably practicable  electropneumatic  device  for  the  operation 
of  signals — a  device  free  from  track  vibrations  and  well 


DAWN  OF  THE  ELECTROPNEUMATIC  217 

shielded  from  adverse  weather  influences  in  service — he 
hesitated  to  apply  its  principles  to  practical  switch  operation 
until  as  late  as  1890,  and  preferred  to  use  hydraulic  pressure 
to  apply  power  and  pneumatic  pressure  to  set  it  in  opera- 
tion for  handling  switches,  in  his  early  interlocking  efforts. 

For  ten  years  this  policy  was  followed  in  the  numerous 
large  terminal  interlockings  that  were  equipped  with  his 
system.  The  signals  of  the  system,  as  well  as  the  many 
that  were  installed  during  that  period  as  automatic  block 
signals,  employed  the  electromagnet,  however,  controlled 
from  a  machine  lever  or  a  rail  circuit,  or  both,  as  a  means 
for  admitting  and  discharging  the  air  pressure  to  and  from 
the  signal-operating  mechanism. 

In  1890,  when  the  control  of  pneumatically  operated 
switches  was  finally  recognized  as  also  wholly  practicable 
by  electromagnets  under  the  influence  of  the  tower  operator, 
the  hydraulic  control  was  abandoned  in  its  favor,  and  the 
truly  electropneumatic  interlocking  was  commercially  born. 

During  these  ten  years  great  strides  had  been  made,  not 
only  in  the  general  education  of  the  world  in  electric  matters, 
but  in  the  enlightenment  of  railway  men  in  particular  con- 
cerning the  possibilities  of  the  use  of  electricity  in  many 
applications  that  in  1880  could  not  have  been  served  elec- 
trically. Electric  generators,  chemical  and  mechanical, 
had  reached  high  perfection;  insulated  wire,  conduits,  mo- 
tors, and  various  other  electrical  appliances  had  been  in- 
troduced in  all  branches  of  industry,  and  the  education  that 
followed  removed  the  barrier  that  for  ten  years  had  pre- 
vented the  use  of  the  electropneumatic  principle  in  switch 
operation. 

With  these  facts  in  mind  one  may  readily  follow,  from 
the  successive  patents  granted  to  Westinghouse  for  signal 
and  interlocking  devices  the  processes  of  the  gradual  evo- 


218  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

lution  of  the  electropneumatic  system  from  the  more  or 
less  impracticable  hydraulic  system  that  held  the  stage 
when  he  came  upon  it — a  stage  illuminated  by  the  tallow 
candle  and  the  kerosene  lamp.  A  complete  list  of  the 
eighteen  patents  that  he  took  out  in  signalling  and  inter- 
locking is  given  in  an  appendix.  Here  we  shall  consider 
only  those  inventions  which  changed  the  art. 

In  early  practice,  switches  and  signals  were  moved  by 
man  power.  Handling  a  busy  interlocking  cabin  with 
switches  1000  feet  away  (more  or  less)  was  heavy  work. 
In  1887  a  British  writer  said  that  in  the  London  Bridge 
Station,  North  Cabin,  280  levers  were  assembled  in  one 
frame.  Six  hundred  trains  passed  in  a  day  and  ninety  trains 
in  two  busy  hours.  These  figures  do  not  include  the  many 
switching  movements.  This  plant  was  worked  by  gangs  of 
four  men  in  eight-hour  shifts,  and  it  took  a  husky  man  to 
pull  over  some  of  the  levers.  In  power  interlocking,  a  girl 
can  move  the  little  levers,  and  combination  of  functions 
reduces  the  number  of  levers.  One  plant  of  215  electro- 
pneumatic  levers  built  in  St.  Louis  by  the  Union  Switch 
and  Signal  Company  does  the  work  of  696  levers  of  the 
London  type.  There  are  403  units,  switches,  and  signals 
operated  from  this  machine. 

Westinghouse  having  decided  to  add  railroad  signalling 
to  his  many  other  activities,  it  was  inevitable  in  his  character 
that  he  should  proceed  with  energy.  In  one  year  he  took 
out  six  patents  in  signalling  and  interlocking,  ten  brake 
patents  and  five  in  other  arts.  On  February  1,  1881,  he 
received  a  patent  for  moving  a  switch  by  compressed  air, 
using  a  principle  employed  in  his  brake  devices;  "the  switch 
movement  is  effected  by  changing  from  one  direction  to 
another  the  balance  or  excess  of  two  pressures  which  act 
simultaneously  in  two  directions."  In  April  came  a  patent 


mS  FIRST  INTERLOCKING  219 

for  operating  the  signals  in  a  block-signal  system  by  the 
movement  of  the  train.  This  was  entirely  automatic.  Man 
power  was  required  only  for  inspection  and  maintenance. 
Compressed  air  is  "the  motive  power  .  .  .  and  a  hydraulic 
column  or  line  is  the  means  of  transmitting  and  applying 
the  power."  The  mechanism  is  brought  into  operation  by 
the  wheels  of  a  passing  train  striking  a  treadle  or  other  track 
instrument.  This  scheme  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
put  to  actual  use.  On  the  same  day  a  patent  was  issued 
for  Westinghouse's  first  interlocking  machine.  The  move- 
ment of  the  switches  and  signals  was  by  "putting  in  motion 
a  closed  hydraulic  column/'  from  the  interlocking  machine 
to  the  operating  cylinders.  A  movement  of  a  small  lever 
admitted  a  puff  of  compressed  air  to  one  side  of  a  flexible 
diaphragm  and  set  in  motion  the  hydraulic  column,  which, 
in  turn,  actuated  pistons  in  the  working  cylinders,  however 
distant  they  might  be.  Twenty-one  machines  of  this  kind 
were  installed  between  1883  and  1891,  but  they  were  all 
replaced  in  time  by  electropneumatic  plants. 

The  conception  was  ingenious  and  the  mechanical  de- 
tails were  worked  out  with  great  skill  and  thoroughness, 
but  the  first  cost  was  large  and  maintenance  was  expensive 
and  difficult.  Leakage  in  long  lines  of  pipe  under  pressure 
was  serious,  and  the  white  salts  deposited  from  the  leak- 
ing of  the  non-freezing  solution  were  unsightly.  Westing- 
house  foresaw  these  objections  to  his  "pneumatic-hydraulic" 
devices,  and  from  the  first  looked  forward  to  the  electro- 
pneumatic  system.  In  that  system  the  work  is  done  by 
compressed  air,  conveyed  in  a  common  line  pipe  and  fed 
by  a  short  branch  to  each  cylinder.  Air  is  admitted  to  the 
piston  chamber  and  exhausted  by  an  electromagnetic  valve 
which  is  energized  by  an  electric  impulse  sent  out  from  the 
interlocking  machines  in  the  signal  cabin.  This  simple 


220  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

and  elegant  device  was  first  used  in  signalling  and  inter- 
locking by  Westinghouse  and  is  still  standard  practice. 
His  application  for  a  pneumatic-hydraulic  system  was  filed 
January  8,  1881;  two  days  earlier  he  had  filed  an  appli- 
cation for  his  first  electropneumatic  patent,  showing  a  switch 
moved  by  compressed  air,  controlled  by  an  electromagnetic 
valve.  This  was  a  complete  and  workable  design,  thor- 
oughly developed  in  detail.  In  May  he  applied  for  a  patent 
showing  the  same  system  for  operating  signals,  and  inci- 
dentally showing  its  use  in  a  system  of  block  signals  auto- 
matically controlled  by  track  circuits.  Thus,  at  the  be- 
ginning of  his  activities  in  signalling  and  interlocking  he 
foresaw  the  principles  and  laid  down  the  fundamental  ele- 
ments of  all  the  later  developments  in  the  art. 

The  first  power  interlocking  put  into  service  in  America 
and,  so  far  as  we  have  discovered,  the  first  in  the  world, 
was  installed  at  East  St.  Louis  by  the  Union  Switch  and  Sig- 
nal Company  in  1882.  This  was  built  under  the  patents  of 
Guerber  and  Tilden,  which  had  been  bought  by  the  Union 
Company.  It  worked  entirely  by  hydrostatic  pressure 
secured  and  maintained  by  a  pump  and  accumulator.  The 
switch  cylinders  were  double-acting,  pressure  acting  on 
both  sides  of  a  piston  to  move  a  switch  in  both  directions. 
The  signal  cylinders  were  single-acting,  the  signal  being 
moved  one  way  by  hydrostatic  pressure  and  the  other  way 
by  gravity.  Alcohol  was  used  as  a  precaution  against  freez- 
ing, and,  although  it  was  returned  from  the  cylinder  to  the 
pump  after  each  operation,  there  was  leakage  and  waste, 
and  the  cost  of  operation  was  serious.  The  system  had 
other  inherent  defects  that  could  not  be  corrected  easily, 
if  at  all.  The  plant  was  eventually  overhauled  to  work 
by  compressed  air.  This  seems  to  have  been  the  begin- 
ning, in  actual  practice,  of  power  interlocking. 


TRACK-CIRCUIT  CONTROL  221 

In  the  years  when  power  interlocking  was  getting  born 
the  operation  of  signals  by  power  and  their  automatic  con- 
trol by  track  circuit  began  to  interest  American  inventors. 
Here  again  Westinghouse  was  amongst  the  pioneers.  Other 
inventors  preceded  him  in  the  use  of  a  weight  to  be  wound 
up  and  released  by  an  escapement  controlled  by  a  magnet 
and  also  in  the  use  of  hydrostatic  pressure;  but  both  of 
these  means  of  applying  power  were  impracticable  for  ex- 
tensive use  and  were  short-lived.  So  far  as  we  have  dis- 
covered Westinghouse  was  the  first  to  use  compressed  air 
to  move  signals  and  switches,  and  in  the  dawn  of  the  art  of 
power  signalling  he  invented,  designed,  and  patented  mech- 
anisms which  are  in  very  wide  use  and  have  been  but  little 
changed. 

Other  inventors  also  anticipated  Westinghouse  in  track- 
circuit  control,  but  here  again  he  promptly  took  the  lead 
in  devising  systems  which  went  into  large  and  lasting  use. 
It  was  another  of  those  situations  which  arose  often  in  his 
career  when  the  combination  of  comprehensive  vision,  me- 
chanical insight  and  contrivance,  thoroughness  in  detail, 
determination  and  driving  power  carried  him  on  to  great 
and  lasting  accomplishment  when  others  failed.  In  brief, 
it  was  a  case  of  the  difference  of  mental  stature. 

So  the  signal  business  was  launched  in  the  United  States. 
The  education  of  railroad  officers  and  of  the  public  went 
on  slowly.  The  education  of  those  who  dictated  the  finan- 
cial policy  of  the  railroads  was  perhaps  still  slower.  There 
was  little  demand  for  the  product  of  the  Signal  Company, 
and  Westinghouse  gave  the  greater  part  of  his  time  and 
thought  to  matters  which  promised  quicker  returns  and 
greater  results.  The  Machine  Company  was  organized  in 
1880  and  called  for  much  attention.  The  natural-gas  de- 
velopment began  in  1884  and  a  new  art  was  to  be  created. 


222  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

In  two  years,  1884  and  1885,  Westinghouse  brought  out 
twenty-eight  patents  in  this  art.  The  Westinghouse  Elec- 
tric Company  was  formed  in  1886.  Shortly  before  this 
Westinghouse  began  one  of  the  most  important  efforts  of 
his  life,  the  introduction  and  development  of  the  alternat- 
ing current  for  the  distribution  and  use  of  electric  energy. 
This  called  for  absorbing  thought  and  labor.  In  1888  came 
the  most  critical  and  dramatic  episode  in  the  history  of  the 
air  brake  which  brought  out  a  swift  and  brilliant  display 
of  Westinghouse's  temperament  and  genius. 

Notwithstanding  such  demands,  Westinghouse  filed  in 
1888  an  application  for  his  most  elaborate  and  his  most  im- 
portant patent  in  interlocking,  and  the  patent  was  issued  in 
February  1891.  This  invention  was  developed  in  collabo- 
ration with  Mr.  J.  G.  Schreuder,  afterward  Chief  Engineer 
and  one  of  the  vice-presidents  of  the  Union  Switch  and 
Signal  Company,  whose  name  appears  in  the  patent  speci- 
fication as  a  co-inventor.  This  was  the  basis  of  an  impor- 
tant and  profitable  business,  which  still  endures.  Many  of 
the  greatest  railroad  yards  in  the  country  are  handled  by 
the  electropneumatic  interlocking,  and  it  has  gone  into 
considerable  use  abroad.  It  was  the  culmination  of  ten 
years  of  study  and  experience,  and  the  specifications  of  this 
great  patent  were  worked  out  with  such  unsparing  labor 
and  such  comprehensive  skill  that  but  few  changes  in  de- 
tail have  been  made  from  the  original  designs. 

One  must  regret  that  the  plan  of  this  book  does  not  per- 
mit adequate  mention  of  several  excellent  engineers  who 
helped  Westinghouse  in  working  out  electropneumatic  sig- 
nalling and  interlocking,  but  the  story  would  be  incomplete 
without  the  name  of  John  Pressley  Coleman.  He  has  been 
with  the  Union  Switch  and  Signal  Company  from  very  early 
days,  and  has  been  a  prolific  and  judicious  inventor  and  de- 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  BASIC  ARTS          223 

signer.  In  the  special  field  of  operating  switches  and  signals 
by  electropneumatic  means  he  has  long  been  a  high  author- 
ity— perhaps  for  twenty  years  the  highest  authority. 

The  development  of  the  power  brake  was  one  of  the 
greatest  events  in  the  evolution  of  the  art  of  land  transpor- 
tation, second  only  to  the  invention  of  the  tubular  boiler 
and  of  the  Bessemer  process  for  making  steel;  but  the  de- 
velopment of  power  signalling  and  interlocking  was  neces- 
sary to  the  full  effects  of  the  brake.  One  was  the  comple- 
ment of  the  other.  So,  too,  the  development  of  the  uses 
of  alternating  electric  current  for  the  transmission  and  ap- 
plication of  power  was  one  of  the  greatest  events  in  the 
evolution  of  the  art  of  manufacturing  power.  These  two 
arts  are  at  the  base  of  the  structure  of  modern  society.  As 
we  go  on  in  our  study  we  become  more  and  more  clearly 
aware  of  the  place  of  George  Westinghouse  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  these  two  fundamental  arts.  In  this  chapter  the 
aim  has  been  to  show  something  of  his  part  in  railway  sig- 
nalling and  interlocking. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
NATURAL  GAS 

WESTINGHOUSE  was  not  the  first  man  to  bring  natural 
gas  into  Pittsburgh.  At  least  two  companies  were  operat- 
ing there  for  a  year  or  two  before  he  became  actively  con- 
cerned in  the  matter;  but  their  operations  were  narrow 
in  conception  and  scope  and  crude  in  execution.  Westing- 
house  saw  the  situation  in  a  large  way  and  he  saw  it  as  an 
engineer,  and  he  changed  it  abruptly  and  fundamentally. 
One  of  his  associates  in  this  development,  a  Pittsburgh 
man,  writes:  "Mr.  Westinghouse  was  the  only  man  of  all 
those  engaged  in  the  natural-gas  business  who  sized  up  the 
situation  and  was  willing  to  spend  money  to  meet  the 
wants  of  the  people  in  Pittsburgh  and  Allegheny  City 
and  the  vicinity."  He  organized  the  Philadelphia  Com- 
pany with  sufficient  capital,  and  bought  land  in  possible 
gas  fields  and  secured  gas  rights  by  lease  on  a  royalty  basis. 
The  large  sums  paid  annually  to  the  farmers  in  western 
Pennsylvania  for  the  rent  of  gas  wells  were  an  important 
addition  to  the  wealth  of  the  region. 

He  organized  the  transportation  of  gas  over  consider- 
able distances  on  a  new  plan.  Gas  was  then  piped  in  and 
distributed  in  six-inch  and  eight-inch  mains.  Westinghouse 
started  at  the  wells  with  an  eight-inch  line.  After  four  or 
five  miles  this  was  stepped  up  to  ten  inches;  then  to  twelve, 
twenty,  twenty-four,  and  thirty  inches.  Later,  thirty-six- 
inch  pipe  was,  and  is  still,  in  use.  At  the  points  where  the 
gage  of  pipe  changed  there  were  safety  valves,  and  men 
were  constantly  on  duty  to  watch  the  valves.  Perhaps  it 

224 


NATURAL  GAS  DANGERS  .       225 

is  superfluous  to  tell  the  reader  that  this  is  an  expedient 
for  reducing  friction  and  pressure,  well  known  and  obvious 
to  engineers.  Westinghouse  had  the  courage  and  sagacity 
to  apply  it  to  a  new  and  experimental  situation. 

Westinghouse  seems  to  have  had  no  active  interest  in 
the  use  of  natural  gas  until  late  in  1883.  By  midsummer 
of  1884  he  was  in  full  swing.  His  company  was  organized 
and  financing  was  well  under  way;  a  broad  charter  and 
adequate  city  ordinances  had  been  procured;  and  a  copious 
stream  of  invention  began  to  flow.  Thirty-eight  patents  in 
this  art  were  taken  out  by  Westinghouse.  Of  these,  twenty- 
eight  were  applied  for  in  1884  and  1885.  His  great  experi- 
ence in  using  compressed  air  at  high  pressures  gave  him  a 
good  foundation. 

Serious  inconveniences  and  more  serious  dangers  had 
developed  in  the  early  distribution  and  use  of  natural  gas 
in  the  Pittsburgh  district.  Breaks  in  supply  and  service 
lines  left  mills  without  power  and  houses  without  heat. 
This  was  bad,  but  in  dwellings  worse  things  followed.  When 
the  supply  was  cut  off  or  pressure  fell,  fires  went  out  in 
grates  and  ranges.  When  the  supply  came  on  again,  if  the 
cocks  had  not  been  shut,  rooms  were  filled  with  unburned 
gas  and  asphyxiation  or  explosions  and  fires  followed.  This 
danger  was  increased  by  a  common  practice  of  letting  gas 
fires  burn  continuously,  windows  being  opened  to  cool  the 
rooms.  This  was  in  the  days  before  gas  was  metered,  and 
while  it  was  looked  upon  as  inexhaustible,  and  sold  to  the 
user  at  so  much  per  opening.  Natural  gas  has  little  odor, 
and  leaks  may  go  on  unnoticed  until  dangerous  quantities 
have  accumulated  and  explosive  mixtures  have  formed. 
It  happened  in  the  early  days  that  leakage  from  street  mains 
crept  into  houses  and  the  houses  were  wrecked  by  explo- 
sions. 


226  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

Westinghouse  devised  a  system  of  escape  pipes  which 
paralleled  the  street  mains,  and  by  which  leakage  was  car- 
ried off  through  corner  lamp  posts.  He  invented  meters 
for  household  and  factory  use,  the  latter,  the  Westinghouse 
proportional  gas  meter,  having  a  capacity  of  500,000  cubic 
feet  per  hour.  His  most  important  safety  device  was  the 
automatic  cut-off  regulator.  When  the  gas  pressure  drops 
below  four  ounces  (the  working  pressure  for  household  use) 
the  supply  is  automatically  cut  off,  and  the  consumer  cannot 
light  a  jet  until  all  the  valves  in  the  house  have  been  closed. 
Then  the  supply  can  be  restored  by  pressing  a  button  on 
the  regulator.  This  provides  against  such  accidents  as 
have  been  described  above.  In  brief,  he  created  the  tech- 
nique of  a  new  art. 

The  direct  personal  activity  of  Westinghouse  in  natural 
gas  ended  in  December  1899,  when  he  resigned  as  presi- 
dent and  as  a  director  of  the  Philadelphia  Company. 
Meantime,  there  had  been  a  great  development  of  the  busi- 
ness in  western  Pennsylvania.  Eleven  and  three-quarter 
billion  cubic  feet  of  gas  was  sold  in  1898.  There  were  395 
producing  wells,  962  miles  of  pipe  line,  318  miles  of  tele- 
phone lines,  and  114,471  acres  of  gas  and  oil  lands. 

The  waste  was  prodigal,  and  it  was  the  constant  effort 
of  the  officers  of  the  Philadelphia  Company  to  get  its  cus- 
tomers to  use  *gas  economically.  The  gradual  establish- 
ment of  meters  corrected  what  one  of  the  old  officers  calls 
"a  crying  shame."  As  the  near-by  wells  were  exhausted 
and  the  distance  from  which  the  supply  must  be  drawn 
increased,  the  cost  to  the  consumer  rose,  and  the  use  of 
gas  in  the  mills  fell  off,  but  it  is  the  chief  domestic  fuel  in 
the  district,  and  is  still  much  used  in  the  industries. 

A  minor  but  picturesque  event  which  happened  at  the 
outset  of  Westinghouse's  natural-gas  experience  has  often 


THE  GAS  WELL  AT  "SOLITUDE"  227 

been  described.  It  made  great  excitement  in  Pittsburgh 
and  some  uneasiness  amongst  those  who  were  already 
bringing  in  gas  in  a  small  way.  This  was  the  sinking  of  a 
well  in  the  grounds  of  "Solitude,"  his  home  at  Pittsburgh. 
Having  decided  to  prospect  for  gas  in  his  own  back  yard, 
a  contract  for  drilling  was  made,  December  29,  1883,  and 
about  the  end  of  February  a  small  vein  of  gas  sand  was 
tapped,  with  a  moderate  yield.  Mr.  Gillespie,  who  was 
drilling  the  well,  remembers  Westinghouse  saying  that 
"he  would  prefer  a  well  of  this  size  to  a  larger  one,  as  he 
had  enough  gas  for  his  house  and  for  some  of  his  friends 
hi  the  neighborhood.  This  feeling  lasted  only  a  few  days, 
and  he  was  keen  to  go  on."  Of  course  he  was.  There  were 
unexplored  possibilities  in  the  earth  beneath  and  in  the 
water  under  the  earth.  At  1500  feet  another  vein  was 
struck,  with  a  good  yield,  and  the  drillers  wished  to  stop 
for  fear  of  getting  salt  water  and  spoiling  the  well.  But 
Westinghouse  "had  a  new  thing  to  play  with,  spending 
his  evenings  at  the  well,  scheming  new  drilling  tools  and 
improvements  hi  ways  of  prospecting."  Why  stop?  A 
little  deeper  "we  struck  such  a  volume  of  gas  that  it  blew 
the  tools  out  and  ripped  off  the  casing  head  with  such  a 
roar  and  racket  that  nobody  could  hear  his  own  ears,  with- 
in a  block."  The  gas  was  set  alight,  and  for  weeks  the 
neighborhood  was  lit  up  by  this  roaring  torch,  a  hundred 
feet  high.  It  was  fun  for  Westinghouse,  but  rather  dis- 
turbing to  the  peace  of  a  handsome  residential  section. 
The  well  was  got  under  control  and  capped,  and  Westing- 
house  went  into  the  natural-gas  business. 

The  administrative  and  executive  machinery  for  this 
enterprise  was  provided  by  the  creation  of  the  Philadel- 
phia Company.  This  company  exists  and  works  under 
an  old  charter,  one  of  four  or  five  "omnibus"  charters 


228  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

granted  by  the  Pennsylvania  legislature  about  1870,  and 
carrying  very  broad  powers.  The  discovery  and  purchase 
'  of  this  charter  by  Westinghouse  and  his  officers  and  agents 
secured  to  the  new  company  an  asset  of  great  value.  The 
company  has  for  years  owned  and  operated  the  street  rail- 
ways of  Pittsburgh  and  San  Francisco,  and  it  produces 
and  distributes  electric  current  for  light  and  power  for 
Pittsburgh  and  the  near-by  suburbs. 

Westinghouse  eventually  withdrew  from  the  Philadel- 
phia Company  and  from  the  natural-gas  business.  The 
developing  and  pioneering  period  had  come  to  an  end  and 
he  had  but  mild  interest  in  accomplished  activities.  Mean- 
time, he  had  created  an  enterprise  of  great  public  service. 
It  gave  to  a  large  region  a  new  fuel — clean,  convenient, 
and  relatively  cheap.  This  fuel  was  distinctly  superior 
in  the  heating  furnaces  of  the  varied  iron  and  steel  indus- 
tries, and  especially  superior  in  making  glass,  and  for  a 
time  it  was  much  used  for  making  steam. 

However  long  these  conditions  may  or  may  not  continue, 
certain  permanent  results  followed  from  the  natural-gas 
development.  Early  in  our  Colonial  history  Pittsburgh 
was  seen  to  be  a  strategic  point,  in  trade  and  in  war.  Later 
it  took  on  new  importance  as  a  convenient  place  to  assem- 
ble iron  ore,  and  coal,  and  all  the  world  knows  what  fol- 
lowed, for  Pittsburgh  is  as  famous  as  Westphalia.  The 
discovery  and  development  of  the  Lake  Superior  iron  mines 
led  to  the  establishment  at  lake  ports  of  new  iron  and  steel 
works  and  the  enlargement  of  old  ones.  There  was  some 
alarm  jn  the  Pittsburgh  district,  but  the  supply  of  natural 
gas  on  a  large  scale  came  in  the  nick  of  time  and  stopped 
much  of  the  threatened  diversion  of  this  industry.  Pitts- 
burgh is  more  than  an  iron  and  steel  city.  In  that  vicinity 
more  glass  is  made  than  in  all  the  rest  of  the  United  States, 


SMOKELESS  PITTSBURGH  229 

and  about  half  of  our  total  output  of  cork  products  comes 
from  that  district.  In  some  degree  these  and  many  other 
industries  were  held  or  stimulated  by  natural  gas.  It  would 
be  idle,  though  interesting,  to  speculate  upon  what  would 
have  happened  if  natural  gas  had  not  been  brought  into 
Pittsburgh  just  at  the  critical  moment,  and  developed 
swiftly  and  on  a  great  scale;  but  we  know  what  did 
happen.  George  Westinghouse  came  on  the  field  at  the 
tactical  instant  in  an  industrial  battle. 

For  a  few  years  Pittsburgh  had  blue  skies.  People  again 
saw  its  beautiful  hills  and  valleys.  Its  smoke-stained 
buildings  came  out  into  the  sunlight  and  seemed  suddenly 
to  have  grown  old.  This  lasted  but  a  few  years;  the  black 
and  red  clouds  again  rolled  up  from  the  valleys,  and  clear 
skies  again  became  a  sign  of  adversity.  Westinghouse 
loved  Pittsburgh  in  all  its  aspects.  In  the  short  period  of 
sunshine  and  in  its  normal  gloom,  to  him  it  was  beautiful. 
Standing  before  the  electric  works  at  East  Pittsburgh, 
looking  down  the  Turtle  Creek  valley  to  the  impenetrable 
clouds  hanging  over  the  Carnegie  Works  and  Homestead, 
looking  up  the  valley  to  the  black  columns  rising  over  the 
Air  Brake  works,  looking  across  to  the  bare  and  blasted 
hillside  and  the  naked  oaks,  smothered  by  soot  and  gases, 
he  made  a  sweeping  gesture  and  said:  "Isn't  it  beauti- 
ful?" Ruskin  could  not  have  understood  the  emotion, 
but  Carlyle  would. 

FUEL  GAS 

There  came  a  time  when  two  serious  considerations 
forced  themselves  upon  the  minds  of  engineers  and  inves- 
tors. One  was  that  if  the  natural  gas  gave  out,  there  would 
be  a  large  idle  investment  in  the  plant  for  distributing,  con- 
trolling and  using  gas.  The  other  was  that  if  electric  light- 


230  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

ing  became  general  there  would  be  another  idle  investment 
in  plant  for  making  and  distributing  illuminating  gas.  To 
Westinghouse,  and  to  various  other  engineers,  came  the 
notion  of  making  fuel  gas  for  heat  and  power.  This  would 
fill  the  natural-gas  pipes  and  save  that  loss.  It  was  further 
proposed  to  use  the  existing  illuminating-gas  plants  to  make 
fuel  gas  and  save  another  loss  of  invested  capital.  In  the 
mind  of  Westinghouse  this  group  of  ideas  grew,  as  was  al- 
ways the  case.  He  foresaw  gas  producers,  established  at 
suitable  places,  making  gas  to  run  gas  engines;  these  en- 
gines to  drive  electric  generators,  producing  lighting  cur- 
rent. Then,  as  the  art  advanced,  he  foresaw  the  produc- 
tion of  power  current  in  the  same  way.  His  imagination 
saw  the  railroads  of  the  United  States  lined  with  electro- 
gas  plants,  the  trains  to  be  hauled  and  the  shops  to  be  run 
by  power  thus  produced  and  transmitted  short  distances. 
This  was  before  the  possibility  of  long-distance  transmis- 
sion by  alternating  current  was  demonstrated.  There  was 
no  visible  limit  to  the  extension  of  this  general  idea. 

In  1887  the  Fuel  Gas  and  Electric  Engineering  Com- 
pany was  organized  and  experiments  were  begun  in  mak- 
ing fuel  gas.  Westinghouse  enlisted  some  able  engineers 
and  spent  money  and  energy  with  his  habitual  courage,  not 
to  say  prodigality.  Mr.  Emerson  McMillin  seems  to  have 
proposed  rearranging  and  using  existing  gas  works  and  was 
retained  as  consulting  engineer  of  the  new  company.  Mr. 
Samuel  Wellman  (past-president,  The  American  Society  Me- 
chanical Engineers)  designed  the  general  arrangement  of 
a  very  complete  experimental  producer  plant,  and  was  ac- 
tive in  the  enterprise  and  passed  upon  all  plans  before  the 
work  was  begun.  Mr.  Alex  M.  Gow,  now  of  the  Oliver 
Iron  Mining  Company,  was  one  of  the  engineers  employed. 
An  adequate  laboratory  was  provided  for  the  constant 


FUEL-GAS  EXPERIMENTS  231 

analysis  of  the  gas.  The  engineer  who  reads  this  will  know 
the  competence  of  the  men  engaged  in  this  bold  and  in- 
structive experiment,  and  he  will  not  fail  to  understand 
the  lavish  completeness  of  the  apparatus  provided.  This 
is  not  the  place  to  go  into  the  technical  details,  interesting 
and  informing  as  they  are.  The  result  was  one  of  West- 
inghouse's  great  contributions  to  the  scrap-heap  and  the 
further  education  of  a  few  men  who  have  been  important 
in  engineering  and  industrial  history. 

The  obvious  and  familiar  suggestion  is  made  that  the 
controlling  factors  in  the  scheme  might  have  been  tested 
by  detached  experiments  on  a  small  scale.  Mr.  Gow  writes: 
"The  answer  is,  Mr.  Westinghouse  rarely  did  things  that 
way.  He  was  an  'incorrigible  optimist.'  He  experimented 
on  a  full-size  scale  and  backed  the  faith  that  was  in  him 
to  the  limit.  Once  having  put  his  hand  to  the  plough — 
and  he  was  usually  driving  at  least  a  dozen  furrows  at  a 
time — he  never  looked  back,  never  was  discouraged,  and 
never  had  any  regrets  over  past  failures.  This  work  con- 
sumed months  of  time  and  many  car  loads  of  coal,  and  the 
stand-pipe  of  the  holder  blazed  like  a  gas  well.  A  few  ex- 
plosions and  a  few  fires  added  zest  to  the  experiment.  It 
was  hard  to  say  what  a  day  would  or  would  not  bring  forth; 
but  no  day  brought  forth  fuel  gas  on  a  commercial  basis." 
It  is  interesting  to  recall  that  while  the  fuel-gas  furrow 
was  being  ploughed,  the  quick-action  brake  was  getting 
born  and  the  alternating-current  projects  were  coming  into 
being. 

The  costly  and  interesting  fuel-gas  experiments  were  a 
commercial  failure,  but  the  matter  was  never  entirely  given 
up.  For  many  years  Westinghouse  had  great  hopes  hi  the 
gas  engine  as  a  prime  mover  and  he  caused  gas  producers 
to  be  designed,  developed,  and  made  as  a  part  of  the  prod- 


232  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

uct  of  the  Westinghouse  Machine  Company.  The  swift 
and  great  development  of  the  steam  turbine  and  the  turbo- 
generator gradually  crowded  gas  engines  into  the  back- 
ground and  the  producer  went  with  them.  These  are  now 
but  a  very  small  element  in  the  activities  of  the  Company. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
VARIOUS  INTERESTS  AND  ACTIVITIES 

LAMPS 

THE  earliest  great  use  of  electricity  was  in  lighting,  first 
arc  lighting  and  next  incandescent  lighting.  The  situation 
as  to  invention  and  patents  when  Westinghouse  entered 
the  field  of  incandescent  lighting  is  briefly  explained  else- 
where. Several  able  and  ingenious  men  had  well  begun 
the  line  of  invention  which  led  up  to  the  established  art 
as  it  is  now  practised.  Fundamental  and  controlling  pat- 
ents were  under  way  in  various  stages.  It  was  late  for  West- 
inghouse to  begin  invention  in  lamps,  but  he  watched  the 
field  and  made  some  interesting  excursions  into  it. 

The  story  of  the  stopper  lamp  is  told  in  the  chapter  on 
the  Chicago  World's  Fair.  It  was  a  useful  but  passing  con- 
trivance. It  could  not  long  compete  with  Mr.  Edison's 
simple  and  clever  little  invention  of  the  one-piece  globe. 
In  the  course  of  years  and  after  great  research  the  tungsten 
lamp  came — a  very  important  event  in  electric  lighting. 
Westinghouse  realized  what  had  happened  and  bought 
a  company  in  Vienna  which  was  making  tungsten  lamps 
and  which  owned  patents  in  several  countries,  including  the 
United  States.  He  at  once  established  metal-filament  lamp 
companies  in  France  and  England.  The  patents  then 
bought  were  of  little  relative  value.  The  controlling  patents 
are  now  owned  by  the  General  Electric  Company,  with 
licenses  to  the  Westinghouse  Company;  but  the  enterprise 
brought  technical  knowledge  and  a  commercial  position, 
which  helped  to  build  up  the  Westinghouse  Lamp  Com- 

233 


234  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

pany  into  a  prosperous  institution  with  sales  of  about 
$12,000,000  a  year.  The  Westinghouse  Metallfaden  Gluh- 
lampenfabrik  Gesellschaft,  M.  B.  EL,  of  Vienna,  still  lives 
in  the  shadow  of  the  Great  War.  It  has  lately  been  sold 
to  Germans  and  the  name  changed. 

The  incandescent-lighting  system  is  about  the  most  in- 
efficient contrivance  used  by  man.  Of  the  potential  energy 
in  the  coal,  about  10  per  cent  gets  to  the  lamp,  and  the  car- 
bon lamp,  using  three  or  four  watts  per  candlepower,  gave 
an  efficiency,  from  the  coal  pile  to  useful  energy  in  the  light, 
of  from  one-fourth  to  one-half  of  one  per  cent.  The  best 
metal-filament  lamp  of  today  is  five  or  six  times  as  efficient 
as  the  old  carbon  lamp;  but  to  get  back  three  per  cent  of 
your  coal  in  the  shape  of  light  energy  is  not  a  result  that 
engineers  can  be  really  proud  of  or  satisfied  with. 

In  1897,  long  before  the  tungsten  lamp  arrived,  Mr. 
Henry  Noel  Potter  brought  to  Westinghouse's  attention 
a  crude  form  of  incandescent  lamp  invented  by  a  German 
physicist,  Doctor  Walter  Nernst.  The  illuminant  of  this 
lamp  is  a  small  porcelain-like  rod  made  of  so-called  "rare 
earths,"  such  as  magnesia,  thoria,  and  ytria.  When  con- 
nected in  an  electric  circuit  like  the  ordinary  incandescent 
lamp,  no  current  will  flow  through  the  rod  until  it  is  heated 
by  outside  means.  Then  it  becomes  conductive.  The  heat 
generated  by  the  current  flow  thereafter  keeps  the  rod  in 
its  conductive  condition  and  it  emits  a  beautiful  soft  light, 
the  spectrum  of  which  more  nearly  corresponds  to  that 
of  sunlight  than  any  other  artificial  light.  Another  interest- 
ing feature  of  the  Nernst  lamp  is  its  capability  of  being 
used,  "burned,"  in  the  open  air,  thus  avoiding  the  neces- 
sity of  using  an  evacuated  globe. 

Westinghouse  at  once  became  intensely  interested  in 
this  lamp  and  bought  the  American  rights.  He  organized 


THE  NERNST  LAMP  235 

the  Nernst  Lamp  Company  and  employed  a  force  of  en- 
gineers to  develop  the  lamp  to  commercial  form.  Many 
ingenious  devices  were  invented  for  automatically  apply- 
ing the  starting  heat  and  for  controlling  the  current  flow 
through  the  conducting  rod,  or  "glower,"  as  it  was  called. 
The  electrical  efficiency  of  the  Nernst  lamp  was  found  to 
be  one  and  one-half  watts  per  candlepower,  twice  that 
of  the  best  form  of  ordinary  incandescent  electric  lamp 
then  known.  This  fact  and  the  superior  quality  of  the  light 
justified  Westinghouse  in  his  belief  that  it  would  be  a  suc- 
cessful competitor  in  the  incandescent-lighting  field. 

The  sales  of  the  company  grew  fast  and  the )  Nernst 
Lamp  Company  gave  promise  of  great  success.  At  the 
height  of  its  prosperity,  however,  something  happened 
which  doubtless  Westinghouse  as  well  as  others  engaged 
in  this  kind  of  enterprise  expected  would  happen  sooner 
or  later;  namely,  the  production  of  the  tungsten  filament, 
which  far  surpassed  the  carbon  filament  in  electrical  ef- 
ficiency, and  was  more  efficient  than  the  Nernst  lamp.  It 
soon  became  apparent  that  the  Nernst  lamp  could  not 
successfully  compete  with  the  tungsten  lamp  of  higher 
efficiency,  particularly  as  the  Nernst  lamp  was  inherently 
complicated  and  expensive,  as  compared  with  the  exceed- 
ingly simple  form  of  the  evacuated  tungsten  lamp.  The 
color  qualities  of  the  Nernst  lamp,  although  desirable,  were 
not  of  sufficient  commercial  value  to  outweigh  the  disad- 
vantages of  its  complexity  when  confronted  by  the  higher 
efficiency  and  the  simplicity  of  the  tungsten-filament  lamp. 
Realizing  this,  Westinghouse  promptly  arranged  for  the 
discontinuance  of  the  manufacture  of  the  Nernst  lamp  ex- 
cept upon  a  very  small  scale. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  benefit  to  the  public  from  the  work 
of  Westinghouse  hi  promoting  the  Nernst  lamp  is  in  the 


236  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

education  in  proper  light  distribution.  This  subject  the 
engineers  of  the  company  were  compelled  to  study  care- 
fully because  of  the  peculiar  structure  of  the  Nernst  lamp, 
which  led  to  placing  it  above  the  normal  line  of  vision.  The 
rules  governing  the  location  of  lamps  established  by  the 
Nernst  Company  are  essentially  those  now  followed  in  plac- 
ing incandescent  lamps.  From  an  aesthetic  view-point  it 
is  greatly  to  be  regretted  that  the  Nemst  lamp  could  not 
have  kept  a  commercial  position,  since  no  other  artificial 
illuminant  has  yet  been  discovered  with  so  nearly  a  day- 
light spectrum  as  that  of  the  glowing  rods  of  rare  earths. 

Soon  after  the  Nernst  lamp  came  the  Cooper  Hewitt 
lamp,  which  still  lives  and  in  fact  is  in  increasing  use.  For 
years  unsuccessful  attempts  had  been  made  to  produce 
a  commercially  successful  lamp  hi  which  an  enclosed  gas 
traversed  by  an  electric  current  would  serve  as  the  illumi- 
nant. Late  in  1899,  Mr.  L.  F.  H.  Betts,  a  patent  lawyer 
in  New  York,  asked  Terry  whether  Westinghouse  would 
be  interested  in  a  new  form  of  electric  light  invented  by 
Peter  Cooper  Hewitt,*  with  the  result  that  Betts  arranged 
for  Terry  to  meet  Hewitt  at  his  laboratory  in  the  Madison 
Square  Garden  Tower.  The  lamp  shown  by  Hewitt  was 
startling.  For  a  long  time  Hewitt  had  been  seeking  to  get 
efficient  light  by  transmitting  high-potential,  high-frequency 
currents  through  tubes  containing  a  gas  or  vapor,  some- 
what along  the  lines  of  the  familiar  Geissler  tubes.  One 
day  he  chanced  to  connect  the  tubes  in  circuit  with  a  di- 
rect-current source  while  the  high-frequency  current  was 
also  flowing.  Suddenly  the  rather  faint  Geissler  glow  burst 
into  a  brilliant  greenish-white  light.  Hewitt's  assistant 
sitting  in  a  chair  near  by  was  so  startled  that  he  fell  over 
backward,  but  Hewitt  himself,  who  had  been  expecting 

*  Hewitt  died  in  August  1921. 


THE  COOPER  HEWITT  LAMP  237 

some  such  result,  calmly  proceeded  to  analyze  the  causes, 
with  the  result  that  he  had  soon  developed  the  lamp  which 
bears  his  name.  This  was  the  first  effective  gas  or  vapor 
lamp  ever  devised.  Terry  lost  no  time  in  bringing  the  in- 
vention to  the  attention  of  Westinghouse,  who  was  intensely 
interested.  Negotiations,  at  once  begun,  resulted  in  an 
agreement  dated  March  7,  1900,  between  Westinghouse 
and  Hewitt,  whereby  Westinghouse  was  to  finance  the  enter- 
prise and  organize  a  company  to  exploit  the  lamp.  He 
personally  supplied  the  money  to  carry  on  this  work  until 
1902,  when  the  Cooper  Hewitt  Electric  Company  was 
formed  with  Westinghouse  and  Hewitt  as  its  principal 
stockholders,  the  patent  rights  and  business  being  taken 
over  by  this  company. 

The  lamp  was  of  very  high  efficiency  as  compared  with 
the  best  incandescent  lamp.  From  an  aesthetic  point  of 
view  it  had  a  great  drawback:  the  light  lacked  red  and 
violet  rays  and  was  over-rich  in  green  rays.  This  gave  to 
illuminated  objects  an  unnatural,  indeed  a  ghastly,  appear- 
ance. The  "native  hue"  of  one  who  sat  under  it  was  "sick- 
lied o'er  with  the  pale  cast"  of  dirty  green.  But  Westing- 
house's  gift  of  intense  and  enthusiastic  interest  made  each 
thing  absorbing  and  delightful,  if  not  beautiful,  while  he 
was  at  it,  and  when  one  is  writing  of  his  relations  to  any  one 
matter  there  is  temptation  to  exaggerate  its  place  in  his 
mind.  We  can  only  get  a  proper  perspective  when  we  re- 
member that  there  were  half  a  dozen  such  absorbing  things 
in  every  twenty-four  hours.  The  Cooper  Hewitt  lamp  ap- 
pealed to  him  by  its  originality  and  by  the  technical  in- 
genuity displayed.  He  not  only  pushed  it  commercially 
but  he  played  with  it.  One  was  flooded  with  its  ghastly 
green  rays  in  the  most  unexpected  places.  The  ladies  would 
not  tolerate  it  in  the  drawing  rooms,  but  he  put  it  in  his  own 


238  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

offices.  When  Charles  Francis  Adams  got  back  to  Boston 
from  a  meeting  in  New  York  he  wrote  to  Westinghouse : 
"I  was  shocked  by  your  appearance.  You  really  ought 
to  take  a  vacation."  Westinghouse  answered:  "I  wish  you 
could  see  how  you  looked."  The  absence  of  the  red  and 
violet  rays  made  the  light  far  less  tiring  to  the  eye  than 
that  of  other  artificial  illuminants,  and  it  found  large  use 
in  machine  shops,  drafting  rooms,  printing  establishments, 
government  buildings,  and  other  large  places  where  good 
and  cheap  light  is  more  important  than  true  color  effects. 
Hewitt  later  devised  an  ingenious  means  for  transforming 
some  of  the  rays  into  red  rays  and  blending  these  with  the 
others,  thus  producing  an  excellent  imitation  of  daylight 
where  such  result  was  important. 

An  interesting  characteristic  of  the  Cooper  Hewitt  lamp 
is  that  the  current  flow  must  be  initiated  by  overcoming 
what  Hewitt  aptly  termed  a  "negative  electrode  reluc- 
tance." This  was  accomplished  automatically,  and  once 
the  current  flow  is  established,  this  reluctance,  or  resist- 
ance, remains  in  abeyance  so  long  as  the  flow  is  in  a 
given  direction,  and  it  is  prohibitive  to  current  flow  in 
the  reverse  direction.  This  peculiar  characteristic  made 
the  lamp  inoperative  on  a  single-phase  alternating-current 
circuit,  for  the  lamp  would  "go  out"  at  the  cessation  of 
each  positive  impulse,  or  several  thousand  times  a  minute. 
To  overcome  this  difficulty  Hewitt  made  a  lamp  with  three 
positive  electrodes  acting  in  conjunction  with  a  single  nega- 
tive electrode.  When  these  positive  electrodes  were  con- 
nected with  the  three  conductors  of  a  three-phase  alternat- 
ing source,  current  would  flow  at  all  times  into  the  nega- 
tive from  one  or  more  of  the  positive  electrodes,  thus  keep- 
ing the  negative  continuously  "alive."  Various  means 
were  later  devised  adapting  the  lamp  to  two  phases  de- 


MERCURY  ARC  RECTIFIER  239 

rived  from  a  single-phase  current,  and  it  thus  became  a 
commercial    device    for    single-phase    alternating    circuits 


The  fact  that  the  flow  of  the  current  through  the  con- 
ductor connected  with  the  negative  electrode  was  always 
in  a  given  direction  gave  Hewitt  the  idea  of  utilizing  this 
characteristic  for  rectifying  alternating  current  for  use  as 
direct  current.  This  led  to  the  development  of  the  Cooper 
Hewitt  rectifier.  The  commercial  value  of  this  rectifier 
promised  to  be  great,  and  as  the  original  agreement  between 
Westinghouse  and  Hewitt  related  only  to  the  lamp,  a  sup- 
plemental agreement  was  made  in  1902  to  include  the  rec- 
tifier. This  device  consists  essentially  of  an  exhausted  glass 
globe  containing  multiple  positive  electrodes  and  a  single 
negative.  The  principle  of  operation  is  the  same  as  that 
of  the  alternating-current  lamp,  but  the  construction  is 
such  that  very  little  energy  is  absorbed  in  the  production 
of  light.  The  rectifier  soon  became  a  standard  product 
of  the  Cooper  Hewitt  Company. 

In  1913  license  agreements  were  entered  into  between 
the  Cooper  Hewitt  Company  and  the  Westinghouse  Com- 
pany, and  between  the  latter  and  the  General  Electric 
Company,  whereby  these  two  companies  secured  licenses 
to  manufacture  and  exploit  the  rectifier,  paying  suitable 
royalties  to  the  Cooper  Hewitt  Company.  An  agreement 
was  also  made  between  the  Cooper  Hewitt  Company  and 
the  General  Electric  Company  providing  for  the  exchange 
of  licenses  on  the  lamps,  the  latter  company  having  mean- 
while secured  a  number  of  patents  of  value  in  that  field. 
These  arrangements  still  continue,  although  since  the  death 
of  Westinghouse  the  General  Electric  Company  has  bought 
the  control  of  the  capital  stock  of  the  Cooper  Hewitt  Com- 
pany. So  the  manufacture  of  the  lamp  and  the  rectifier 


240  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

goes  on  in  growing  volume.  Westinghouse,  as  an  incident 
in  his  work,  or  as  a  by-product,  had  founded  another  en- 
terprise. 

MULTIPLE-UNIT  CONTROL 

It  is  elementary  in  the  art  of  land  transportation  that 
when  the  volume  of  traffic  is  large  enough  there  is  gain  in 
massing  the  cars  into  trains.  This  situation  began  to  ap- 
pear quite  early  in  electric  transportation  in  and  about 
the  large  cities.  Very  little  thought  makes  clear  the  ad- 
vantages of  having  a  motor  under  each  car,  and  with  elec- 
tric traction  that  is  possible.  When  every  wheel  in  a  train 
is  a  driving  wheel  great  tractive  power  is  secured  without 
concentration  of  weight  destructive  to  the  track.  In  city 
and  suburban  traffic,  where  stops  must  be  frequent,  this 
is  especially  important,  for  it  makes  it  possible  to  get  up 
to  speed  quickly.  Obviously  it  is  essential  that  all  of  the 
motors  in  a  train  should  be  controlled  from  the  head  of  the 
train,  and  these  conditions  were  met  by  the  invention  and 
development  by  Mr.  Frank  J.  Sprague  of  a  fundamentally 
new  system  of  electric  train  make-up  and  operation  which 
he  called  the  "multiple-unit  system." 

This  provided  for  the  individual  equipment  of  cars  and 
locomotives  with  motors,  and  main  controllers  therefor, 
and  a  train  line,  with  coupler  and  master  controllers,  in 
such  fashion  that  any  number  of  wholly  or  partly  equipped 
units  could  be  assembled  in  any  order  or  sequence,  and 
then  controlled  by  like  movements,  relative  to  the  track, 
of  the  master  controller  from  the  head  of  any  car.  This 
made  it  possible  to  get  the  maximum  of  train  and  track 
capacity. 

Mr.  Sprague  had  the  foresight  and  ability  as  an  engineer 
and  inventor  to  not  only  devise  means  for  the  practical 


MULTIPLE-UNIT  CONTROL  241 

application  of  the  principles  involved  but  to  see  the  pos- 
sibilities of  its  influence  upon  a  comprehensive  system  of 
electric  traction. 

The  system  was  first  used  on  the  South  Side  Elevated 
Railroad  in  Chicago  in  1897,  and  its  success  led  to  the  ulti- 
mate adoption  of  this  general  method  of  control,  modified 
in  details,  on  all  electric  roads  where  two  or  more  motor 
units  are  operated  under  a  single  control. 

Westinghouse  saw  clearly  what  was  coming  in  the  great, 
new  field  of  electric  traction,  and  the  advantages  to  the 
electric  companies,  to  the  inventor,  and  to  the  public  of 
participation  by  both  the  Westinghouse  and  the  General 
Electric  Companies  in  the  inventions  of  Mr.  Sprague.  The 
great  cost  of  duplication  in  invention  and  development 
might  thus  be  avoided,  and  the  companies  would  still  com- 
pete in  manufacture  and  sale,  while  the  product  would  not 
be  loaded  with  an  unnecessary  charge.  He  suggested  a 
plan  of  participation  which  was  not  acceptable.  West- 
inghouse did  not  take  his  troubles  lying  down,  and  while 
retaining  the  essential  principles  of  the  multiple-unit  sys- 
tem, he  proceeded  to  develop  the  application  of  electrically 
controlled  pneumatic  equipment  as  an  alternative  to  the 
all-electric  Sprague  apparatus. 

In  1898,  a  few  months  after  the  failure  of  diplomacy  to 
save  waste,  the  electropneumatic  control  was  in  service  on 
the  Brooklyn  Elevated  Railway,  and  it  is  still  there,  work- 
ing well.  The  long  and  exacting  experience  of  Westing- 
house  in  electropneumatic  work,  particularly  in  handling 
switches  and  signals,  had  prepared  him  for  this  situation, 
and  he  had  already  developed  the  essential  elements,  but 
there  were  new  features  of  extraordinary  ingenuity. 

A  few  years  later  came  the  necessity  of  devising  a  con- 
troller for  the  subway  equipment  in  New  York.  Larger 


242  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

volumes  of  current  were  to  be  handled  here  than  in  any 
existing  installation,  and  the  subway  engineers  thought 
that  the  "drum"  type  was  inadequate.  With  this  the 
Westinghouse  engineers  did  not  agree  and  proposed  to 
adequately  change  the  electropneumatic  drum-controller. 
The  General  Electric  Company  brought  out  a  new  design 
which  they  called  the  "plunker"  type,  and  it  soon  became 
pretty  clear  that  the  drum-controller  would  not  be  accepted. 
Westinghouse  was  suddenly  face  to  face  with  the  sort  of 
situation  which  he  most  enjoyed — a  radical  change  of  tac- 
tics in  the  face  of  the  enemy.  The  writer  of  these  lines  had 
the  privilege  of  getting  a  glimpse  of  the  beginnings  of  this 
change  of  tactics.  It  was  in  a  night  ride  from  New  York 
to  Pittsburgh  in  Westinghouse's  car.  For  a  large  part  of 
the  night  he  worked,  drawing  and  erasing,  brooding  and 
drawing.  In  the  morning  he  had  a  set  of  sketches  ready 
for  the  shops  at  the  air-brake  works.  This  was  the  birth 
of  the  "turret  control."  In  a  few  weeks  the  equipment 
for  a  train  was  built  and  tested,  and  it  was  a  working  ap- 
paratus. As  an  example  of  speed,  resource,  skill,  and  suc- 
cess, the  incident  was  as  interesting  as  the  classic  episode 
of  the  quick-action  brake,  although  of  nothing  like  the  same 
importance. 

The  first  order  for  the  subway  controller  equipment  went 
to  the  General  Electric  Company,  but  a  great  many  electro- 
pneumatic  controllers  have  since  been  supplied  to  the  heavy 
traffic  electric  systems  in  and  about  New  York.  Both  types 
persist,  but  the  preponderating  opinion  seems  to  favor  the 
electropneumatic  type. 

CAB,  AIR,  AND  ELECTRIC  COUPLER — COMBINED 

The  conditions  of  heavy  subway  traffic  led  to  the  inven- 
tion of  an  automatic  combined  coupler.  The  object  is  thus 
told  in  the  patent  specification: 


COMBINATION  COUPLERS  243 

My  present  invention  relates  to  couplings  for  the  con- 
nection of  railroad  vehicles;  and  its  object  is  to  provide 
an  appliance  for  automatically  coupling  railroad  vehicles 
for  the  purpose  of  draft,  with  which  there  may  be  combined 
means  for  coincidently  and  automatically  coupling  lines 
of  fluid-pressure  pipes  for  the  operation  of  brake  and  steam- 
heating  apparatus,  etc.,  or  for  coupling  electric  conductors 
for  the  conveyance  of  electricity  for  light,  power,  and  brak- 
ing purposes  and  for  signalling,  or  both  of  such  means. 

In  the  coupler  heads,  passages  are  introduced  to  carry 
air  from  one  car  to  another,  and  electric  conductors  are 
also  introduced.  When  the  cars  are  coupled  the  necessary 
connections  and  contacts  are  made  automatically  between 
these  passages  and  conductors.  By  the  use  of  this  coupling 
device  all  manual  operations  in  uniting  cars  of  the  train 
are  dispensed  with,  the  air  connections  and  electric  circuits 
being  automatically  established  when  the  car-coupling  is 
effected.  One  can  imagine  some  of  the  mechanical  difficul- 
ties involved  in  an  apparatus  so  complicated  and  doing 
automatically  such  a  variety  of  things.  Obviously  they 
must  be  done  reliably  and  precisely.  There  must  be  no 
leakage  of  the  air  under  pressure  and  no  failure  to  make 
the  electrical  contacts.  These  are  vital  elements  in  such 
train  operation.  Westinghouse  perfected  the  details  of 
this  invention  with  his  customary  thoroughness  and  energy 
and  satisfied  himself  that  it  solved  the  problem  by  tests 
made  upon  a  few  cars  that  were  operated  by  the  Westing- 
house  Electric  Company.  The  customer,  however,  was 
not  yet  ready  for  it,  so  it  was  held  in  reserve  for  a  demand 
that  was  sure  to  come.  When  the  length  of  trains  on  the 
Interborough  Subway  service  was  increased  from  eight 
to  ten  cars,  better  car  couplings  were  required,  and  the 
Westinghouse  coupling  with  air  connections  was  the  form 
selected  and  has  operated  successfully  for  many  years. 


244  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

This  coupling  is  also  used  on  the  Brooklyn  system,  includ- 
ing the  electric  as  well  as  the  air  connections. 

The  advantages  resulting  from  its  employment  are: 
Greatly  reduced  risk  to  employees  because  of  automatic 
coupling  of  the  air  and  electric  connections;  greater  facility 
and  speed  in  coupling  and  uncoupling  trains;  and  freedom 
from  accidental  stoppages  due  to  broken  electric  circuits 
or  burst  air  hose.  These  advantages  are  of  commanding 
importance  in  the  conduct  of  transportation  of  the  char- 
acter required  in  congested  subway  traffic. 

RESEARCH 

Perhaps  most  of  us,  however  intelligent  and  well  in- 
formed, have  no  adequate  notion  of  the  present  place  of 
research  work  in  industrial  development.  All  great  con- 
cerns now  have  research  laboratories  and  staffs  of  highly 
educated  and  trained  investigators  who  have  no  direct  re- 
lations with  production  and  sales.  They  are  part  of  the 
"overhead."  They  cost  much  money  and  the  results  of 
the  expenditure  are  often  obscure.  They  are  essentially 
modern.  In  old-time  British  foundries  and  machine  works 
it  used  to  be  said  "where  there's  muck  there's  money." 
Individual  skill,  ingenuity,  and  driving  power  contrived 
the  things  to  be  made  and  the  ways  and  means  of  making 
them,  and  pushed  production.  Chemistry,  physics,  and 
sanitation  had  about  as  much  place  in  the  process  as  dif- 
ferential equations;  but  all  these  enter  now  into  the  manu- 
facture of  complicated  engineering  product  and  some  of 
them  enter  into  refining  oil  and  packing  pork. 

George  Westinghouse  saw  pretty  early  the  value  of  pure 
research,  and  from  the  first  days  of  the  Electric  Company 
it  has  gone  deeply  into  what  used  to  be  called  experimental 
work  but  has  later  taken  the  more  accurate  name  of  re- 


ELECTRICAL  SCIENCE  AND  ART  245 

search.  This  is  true  also  in  principle  but  less  in  degree 
of  his  other  companies.  Many  years  ago  the  writer  ven- 
tured to  suggest  to  Westinghouse  that  if  he  would  get 
out  of  active  work  and  devote  himself  to  research,  human- 
ity would  be  the  gainer  in  the  long  run  and  he  would  be 
happy.  He  had  already  gathered  fame  and  ample  fortune. 
He  said:  "Perhaps  so,  but  think  of  the  many  men  to  whom 
I  give  employment.  I  can't  stop  now."  No  doubt  he  real- 
ized, too,  his  handicap  in  his  lack  of  higher  mathematics 
and  physics.  But  his  gift  of  seeing  into  things  went  a  long 
way  to  make  up  for  what  he  had  missed  in  education.  He 
always  gave  impetus  and  encouragement  to  the  research 
work  of  the  Electric  Company,  and  they  have  spent  very 
great  sums  in  that  field;  probably  no  more  than  several 
other  companies,  perhaps  not  so  much  as  some,  but  they 
have  spent  liberally  for  the  advancement  of  the  electric 
science  and  art,  which  means  the  progress  of  man. 

We  have  said  that  it  was  in  1883  that  Westinghouse  be- 
gan serious  work  in  the  electrical  field.  Already  an  impor- 
tant science  of  electricity  had  been  built  up.  Indeed,  it 
is  held  that  the  science  had  been  founded  three  hundred 
years  before;  but  the  applied  art  was  still  insignificant. 
Many  laws  and  principles  had  been  established,  but  many 
more  remained  to  be  discovered,  and  this  was  particularly 
true  of  the  possible  applications  of  the  alternating  current 
to  practical  uses.  The  phenomena  of  alternating  current 
had  to  be  observed  and  worked  into  principles  by  experi- 
ment, and  that  experiment  was  mostly  in  connection  with 
active  manufacturing  orders.  Each  piece  of  apparatus 
brought  through  the  shops  gave  experimental  data  for  later 
designs.  Mathematical  analysis,  now  greatly  used,  and 
often  with  brilliant  effect,  was  almost  unknown,  and  neces- 
sarily so  for  lack  of  facts,  observed  and  recorded.  The  lit- 


246  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

erature  of  the  art  had  mostly  yet  to  be  written,  and  each 
investigator  had  to  depend  pretty  much  on  his  own  limited 
experience.  The  farmer  in  Nebraska  who  sits  on  the  fence 
and  thinks  out  a  brand-new  system  of  government  or  religion 
while  he  whittles  does  not  really  need  history.  But  if  one 
is  dealing  with  steam,  electricity,  friction,  and  gravity,  ex- 
perimental facts  are  necessary,  and  if  they  are  not  on  record 
he  must  dig  them  out  of  his  own  experience.  This  was  the 
situation  in  the  early  days  of  the  Electric  Company,  and 
through  the  stages  of  practical  experiment,  pure  research, 
and  mathematical  analysis  the  art  was  built  up.  It  was 
an  extraordinary  privilege  for  Westinghouse  and  his  young 
engineers  to  live  in  the  dawn  of  an  art  and  to  be  an  essen- 
tial part  of  its  development. 

The  reader  may  be  interested  in  a  few  words  about  some 
specific  research  work.  When  the  Westinghouse  Company 
began  to  build  alternating-current  machines  and  appara- 
tus a  potential  of  1000  volts  was  used,  and  the  problem 
of  insulation  at  once  became  acute.  For  thirty-five  years 
that  problem  has  been  insistent,  if  not  always  acute;  and 
for  thirty-five  years  to  come  it  will  give  occupation  for  the 
learned  and  ingenious  specialist.  That  is  hi  the  nature  of 
things.  As  voltages  increase  insulation  must  be  improved; 
as  insulation  is  improved  voltages  increase.  It  is  the  old 
situation  of  guns  and  armor.  The  story  of  electricity  is 
a  story  of  increasing  voltages,  and  thus  the  whole  story  of 
electrical  development  is  tied  up  with  insulation.  And 
yet  the  function  of  insulation  is  negative — to  keep  some- 
thing from  happening. 

In  a  piece  of  machinery  electric  currents  must  be  con- 
fined, but  the  heat  developed  by  the  currents  must  be  dis- 
sipated. A  poor  conductor  of  electricity  is  a  poor  conduc- 
tor of  heat  also,  and  insulation  that  prevents  destruction 


ANALYSIS  AND  RESEARCH  247 

of  apparatus  by  wandering  currents  may  promote  its  de- 
struction by  confined  heat.  A  compromise  must  be  made, 
and  this  is  one  of  the  functions  of  research.  Many  different 
materials  are  used  for  insulations — cloth,  paper,  fiber,  mica, 
varnish,  gums,  enamels,  oil,  paints,  oxides,  rubber,  and  so 
on  in  great  variety — and  all  have  their  own  peculiar  prop- 
erties. These  must  be  determined  and  weighed  by  research 
and  experiment.  The  study  never  ends,  as  the  requirements 
ever  increase,  and  perhaps  the  problem  of  insulation  is  as 
severe  now  as  it  ever  was;  but  it  is  believed  that  the  West- 
inghouse  engineers  have  gone  further  in  insulation  research 
than  have  the  engineers  of  any  other  electrical  concern  in 
the  world. 

A  beautiful  example  of  the  combination  of  mathematical 
analysis  and  experimental  research  was  the  development 
of  a  fundamental  method  of  calculating  electrical  machinery. 
Crude  methods  were  in  existence  as  early  as  1890,  but  they 
were  empirical  and  of  very  limited  application.  In  1893 
research  investigations  were  made  while  laying  out  the 
generators  for  Niagara  Falls.  Templates  were  made  rep- 
resenting sections  of  the  armature  and  field  and  a  picture 
was  obtained  of  the  distribution  of  the  magnetic  flux,  by  the 
arrangement  into  which  fine  iron  filings  fell  on  paraffined 
paper  laid  over  these  templates  when  current  was  passed 
through.  Study  of  this  picture  suggested  an  attempt  to 
reproduce  the  representation  of  the  flux  distribution  by 
calculation.  This  suggested  the  calculation  of  the  electro- 
motive-force wave  form  of  the  machine  and  this,  in  turn, 
pointed  to  the  possibility  of  a  fundamental  method  of  cal- 
culation of  electrical  machinery.  For  three  or  four  years 
the  study  went  on,  by  mathematical  analysis  and  by  ex- 
periment, and  finally  a  fundamental  method  was  developed 
which  is  the  basis  of  the  methods  of  calculation  in  use  by 


248  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

the  company  today.  The  essential  characteristics  of  a 
complicated  and  costly  machine  can  be  determined  by  cal- 
culation, in  detail,  before  the  working  drawings  are  begun. 
It  is  quite  obvious  that  by  such  scientific  procedure  time 
and  money  are  saved,  as  compared  with  the  cut  and  try 
methods,  which  were  used  when  apparatus  was  built  by 
experiment  and  not  by  analysis.  So  far  has  the  scientific 
method  been  established  that  in  modern  practice  calcula- 
tion is  relied  upon  entirely  in  the  design  of  electrical  ma- 
chinery, and  contracts  for  the  electrical  equipment  of  power 
stations,  railways  and  industrial  plants  are  taken  based 
entirely  on  calculated  designs.  No  error  in  proportions 
or  characteristics  is  permissible  in  the  calculations,  for  no 
check  can  be  had  upon  their  operating  characteristics  until 
the  work  has  gone  so  far  that  important  modifications  in 
the  design  are  not  permissible.  Preliminary  trial  machines 
cannot  be  built,  except  in  rare  cases,  for  there  is  not  time, 
the  huge  apparatus  of  today  often  requiring  considerably 
more  than  a  year  to  construct.  Thus  the  accuracy  in  cal- 
culation, based  on  research  data,  is  one  of  the  marvels  of 
the  electrical  art. 

TELEPHONE 

In  October  1879,  Westinghouse  filed  an  application  for 
a  telephone  patent.  This  was  followed  in  the  next  year 
by  three  other  patents  designed  to  extend  and  perfect  the 
invention  shown  in  the  first  patent.  He  proposed  to  save 
wire  by  a  system  of  auxiliary  telephone  exchanges.  The 
wires  from  a  group  of  subscribers  were  carried  into  a  local, 
auxiliary  exchange,  and  from  there  communication  was 
made  with  the  central  exchange  by  one  common  wire.  The 
underlying  idea  was  to  connect  groups  of  country  users 
with  the  central  exchange  in  a  city  some  distance  away, 
but  it  was  thought  that  it  might  be  advantageous  to  use 


TELEPHONE  INVENTIONS  249 

such  auxiliary  exchanges  in  cities  also  by  grouping  sub- 
scribers in  districts.  These  local  exchanges  were  automatic 
and  thus,  while  wire  was  saved,  the  cost  of  attendance  was 
not  increased.  The  specifications  were  worked  out  in  great 
detail,  and  a  "mechanic  skilled  in  the  art,"  having  the 
specifications  before  him,  could  have  constructed  an  opera- 
tive system  complete  to  the  last  contact  and  set  screw.  This 
is  characteristic  of  Westinghouse's  patents.  It  is  also  char- 
acteristic that  he  should  have  found  time  and  energy  to 
interject  into  the  midst  of  his  crowding  activities  a  subject 
so  foreign,  and  to  carry  it  out  with  such  minute  elabora- 
tion. These  inventions  were  something  for  him  to  play 
with  a  little  while,  and  then  drop  for  some  other  kind  of 
diversion.  They  did,  however,  dimly  forecast  machine 
switching.  A  high  authority  in  telephony  says  they  "ap- 
parently disclose  a  rudimentary  form  of  a  semimechanical 
system."  So  far  they  are  interesting. 

In  the  annual  report  of  the  American  Telephone  and 
Telegraph  Company  for  1919  it  is  said  that  "amongst  pos- 
sible improvements  in  economy  and  efficiency,  the  most 
important  is  the  machine-switching  system  which  has  been 
the  subject  of  constant  study  and  experimentation  by  the 
Department  of  Development  and  Research  over  a  period  of 
more  than  ten  years.  During  the  past  year  the  Engineer- 
ing Department  has  been  engaged  in  planning  and  direct- 
ing the  introduction  of  machine  switching  or  automatic 
switchboards  into  the  Bell  system.  It  is  our  plan  to  study 
each  improvement  in  apparatus  to  determine  how  it  can 
most  economically  be  made  a  part  of  the  plant.  Such  stud- 
ies show  that  in  the  large  cities  machine-switching  equip- 
ment should  be  employed  for  extensions  necessary  to  pro- 
vide for  growth  and  for  reconstruction  to  replace  worn-out 
equipment." 


250  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

We  may  see  in  this  book  other  cases  where  it  took  a  good 
while  for  the  growth  of  an  art  or  the  evolution  of  social  con- 
ditions to  catch  up  with  George  Westinghouse,  but  forty 
years  is  the  longest  interval  that  we  have  discovered.  In 
this  case,  the  delay  was  merely  a  consequence  of  the  reluc- 
tance of  evolution,  and  with  that  the  judicious  will  not 
quarrel.  It  was  not  at  all  a  consequence  of  dullness  or 
unreasonable  conservatism  on  the  part  of  those  who  have 
developed  the  telephone  in  America.  They  have  put  into 
it  costly  research,  engineering  skill,  commercial  sense,  and 
imagination  to  a  degree  not  known  to,  or  even  guessed  by, 
those  who  are  not  specially  informed.  In  this  splendid 
episode  of  our  history  George  Westinghouse  would  have 
shone  if  he  had  dropped  half  a  dozen  other  interests  and 
diligently  followed  telephony.  He  would  have  speeded 
up  the  evolution  of  the  art;  but  after  a  brief  excursion  he 
dropped  telephony  for  good  and  all. 

BOARD  OF  PATENT  CONTROL 

The  wide  and  varied  business  of  the  Westinghouse  Com- 
panies was  making  and  selling  engineering  material.  Most 
of  this  business  was  carried  on  under  patents,  and  it  was 
inevitable  that  there  should  have  been  a  great  deal  of  liti- 
gation in  attack  and  defense.  Westinghouse  was  a  good 
fighter — bold,  resourceful,  and  stubborn.  He  enjoyed  fight- 
ing and  would  have  made  a  great  general;  but  he  was  big 
enough  not  to  fight  for  the  sake  of  fighting.  He  deprecated 
the  waste  of  money  and  the  diversion  of  energy.  He  pre- 
ferred to  protect  the  interests  of  his  companies  by  agree- 
ment when  that  was  possible.  We  say  the  interests  of  his 
companies,  not  his  own  interests.  His  interests  were  al- 
ways subordinate  to  those  of  his  companies.  In  fact,  his 
private  fortune  was  almost  entirely  invested  in  the  stock 


BOARD  OF  PATENT  CONTROL  251 

of  his  companies — not  even  in  their  bonds,  except  now  and 
then  to  help  some  plan  of  financing. 

A  famous  agreement  was  that  made  with  the  General 
Electric  Company  hi  1896.  It  is  told  elsewhere  that  when 
the  General  Electric  Company  won  the  suit  in  the  case  of 
the  Vanderpoel  underrunning  trolley,  Westinghouse  said: 
"That's  good;  now  there  is  a  basis  for  a  trade."  The  trade 
was  made  forthwith,  for  both  parties  welcomed  a  patent 
truce.  It  was  agreed  that  each  company  should  extend 
to  the  other  a  license  under  the  patents  controlled  by  it, 
to  the  extent  that  each  might  sell  an  agreed  percentage 
of  the  aggregate  amount  of  business  of  the  two  companies 
without  payment  of  royalty,  but  if  either  exceeded  such 
percentage,  a  suitable  royalty  should  be  paid  on  the  ex- 
cess. To  carry  out  this  plan  there  was  created  a  Board  of 
Patent  Control  comprising  four  members,  four  alternates, 
and  a  fifth  member  and  his  alternate. 

The  appointees  on  the  part  of  the  Westinghouse  Com- 
pany were:  members,  George  Westinghouse  and  Paul  D. 
Cravath;  alternates,  Charles  A.  Terry  and  B.  H.  Warren, 
the  latter  being  later  succeeded  by  F.  H.  Taylor  and  later 
by  E.  M.  Herr. 

The  General  Electric  Company  appointed  as  members 
C.  A.  Coffin  and  F.  P.  Fish,  and  as  alternates  Robert  Treat 
Payne  and  Gordon  Abbott,  the  former  succeeded  by  Eu- 
gene Griffin  and  later  by  Anson  W.  Burchard,  while  Ab- 
bott was  succeeded  by  Charles  Neave.  The  fifth  member 
was  E.  B.  Thomas;  alternate,  Samuel  Spencer. 

So  well  did  this  plan  work  that  the  fifth  member,  whose 
function  it  was  to  act  as  an  arbitrator  in  case  of  dispute, 
was  called  upon  in  but  two  instances,  and  his  alternate  not 
at  all,  during  the  term  of  the  agreement.  After  the  Board 
had  been  in  existence  some  thirteen  years  or  so  its  opera- 


252  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

tions  were  made  the  subject  of  investigation  by  a  represen- 
tative of  the  Department  of  Justice,  for  the  purpose  of  de- 
termining whether  the  Sherman  Anti-Trust  Law  was  in 
any  way  being  violated,  and  it  was  greatly  to  the  credit 
of  both  companies  that  the  Department  after  exhaustive 
examination  found  no  occasion  to  interfere  with  its  opera- 
tions. Westinghouse  used  always  to  say  that  he  would 
like  to  have  this  agreement  hung  on  the  walls  of  his  office, 
so  sure  was  he  of  its  fairness  to  both  parties  and  to  the 
public.  While  none  of  those  concerned  doubted  its  legal- 
ity, perhaps  there  were  those  who  questioned  the  expedi- 
ency of  such  publicity  in  the  actual  state  of  feeling  about 
agreements  between  corporations.  The  agreement  con- 
tinued to  govern  the  patent  relations  until  the  end  of  its 
stated  term  of  fifteen  years,  which  expired  in  May  1911. 

AIR  SPRING 

The  air  brake,  the  alternating  current,  and  the  steam 
turbine  are,  no  doubt,  of  somewhat  remote  interest  to  a 
good  many  people  to  whom  the  air  spring  for  automobile 
pleasure  cars  is  a  thing  of  immediate  and  daily  interest. 
In  the  life  of  Westinghouse  it  was  a  very  minor  matter, 
but  he  put  into  it  the  same  qualities  of  energy,  enthusiasm, 
and  thoroughness  that  he  put  into  major  matters.  For 
these  reasons  a  few  words  about  it  will  be  illustrative  and 
may  be  interesting,  and  we  cannot  do  better  than  to  quote 
literally  a  letter  on  the  subject  from  Mr.  H.  T.  Herr,  a  vice- 
president  of  the  Electric  Company.  The  letter  was  not 
written  for  publication  and  is  all  the  better  for  that.  It 
gives  an  intimate  view  of  Westinghouse  at  work. 

In  the  spring  of  1910  I  went  into  Mr.  Westinghouse's 
office  in  New  York  to  keep  an  appointment  with  him  in 


AIR  SPRING  FOR  AUTOMOBILES  253 

reference  to  some  important  gear  matters.  A  spirited  dis- 
pute was  on  between  Admiral  Melville  and  Mr.  MacAlpine 
in  which  Mr.  Westinghouse  and  I  were  involved  in  bring- 
ing about  a  settlement  of  the  Melville-MacAlpine  gear 
contract,  with  George  Westinghouse  as  trustee.  On  this 
particular  morning  we  spent  a  half-hour  going  over  different 
matters.  I  always  tried  to  be  as  concise  as  possible  with 
him,  and  when  finished  I  would  generally  say:  "Now,  Mr. 
Westinghouse,  I  know  you  are  very  busy,  and  I  won't  take 
any  more  of  your  time."  He  generally  replied,  "Well, 
I'll  call  you  again  tomorrow  or  this  evening,"  or  he  would 
say,  as  he  did  many  times:  "Mr.  Herr,  I  have  a  good  deal 
on  my  mind,  but  I  like  to  talk  to  you  about  these  mechan- 
ical things.  They  relieve  me." 

This  day  he  asked  me  to  pull  up  my  chair,  and  taking 
a  block  of  cross-section  paper  said:  "Some  little  tune  ago 
I  saw  a  device  which  had  interested  my  chauffeur  at  Lenox. 
This  device  was  made  by.  a  couple  of  men  up  in  the  country 
and  applied  to  an  automobile  to  reduce  the  road  shocks. 
I  have  been  interested  in  it  somewhat  and  it  has  some  merit. 
It  needs  changing  to  make  it  successful." 

He  then  made  a  sketch  of  two  telescoping  cylinders  with 
a  leather  packing  on  one  which  slid  into  the  other.  The 
ends  of  the  cylinders  were  closed  and  a  certain  amount  of 
oil  was  kept  in  the  interior  over  the  packing  to  make  an  air- 
tight joint.  "Now,"  said  Mr.  Westinghouse,  "this  won't 
stand  up  on  account  of  the  oil  leaking  out  past  the  leather- 
packed  piston,  but  I  will  put  a  pump  on  the  inside  (illus- 
trating by  a  sketch)  operated  by  a  flapper,  which,  as  the 
air  spring  collapses  and  extends,  will  automatically  pump 
back  into  the  inside  any  oil  that  leaks  by  the  packing 
leather."  He  was  as  usual  very  enthusiastic  and  very  clear 
in  his  description  and  sketches,  and  after  he  had  finished 
his  explanation  he  sat  back  in  his  chair  and  said  to  me: 
"  What  do  you  think  of  it  ?  "  I  told  him  I  thought  it  would 
work  if  the  plunger  pump  would  function.  He  said  that 
the  pump  would  work  all  right  and  asked  me  if  I  could  build 
one  at  the  Machine  Company,  to  which  I  replied  that  we 


254  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

could  make  anything.  He  said:  "Take  the  sketch  with 
you  and  show  it  to  Green  (patent  attorney  of  the  Machine 
Company)  and  have  one  made/'  adding  that  he  would  have 
Liebau  (one  of  the  inventors)  come  to  Pittsburgh  with  the 
drawings,  etc. 

I  took  the  sketch  with  me  to  Pittsburgh  and  the  second 
day  after  the  conference  Mr.  Westinghouse  arrived  at  the 
works  with  Liebau.  In  the  meantime  I  had  started  the 
development  of  the  first  springs  built  at  the  Machine  Com- 
pany, which  incorporated  the  pump  device.  There  fol- 
lowed a  year's  experimental  work  on  the  best  method  of 
mounting  the  springs,  the  first  set  being  placed  on  a  car 
at  Homewood  that  Mr.  Westinghouse  owned,  and  the  sec- 
ond set  on  my  own  car  in  Pittsburgh.  These  air  springs 
were  applied  by  the  complete  removal  of  the  steel  springs, 
and  made  a  wonderful  difference  in  the  riding  qualities  of 
the  car.  The  wear  of  the  guides  proved  abnormal,  and 
this  method  of  suspension  was  subsequently  abandoned, 
there  being  substituted  therefor  the  application  of  the  air 
springs  as  an  adjunct  to  the  steel  springs,  as  they  are  now 
applied. 

Mr.  Westinghouse  was  a  great  mechanician.  He  had  a 
wonderful  knowledge  of  and  intuition  for  the  proportions 
of  a  device  of  this  kind,  and  could  with  little  calculation, 
simply  by  good  judgment  of  these  proportions,  have  a  splen- 
did design  produced.  The  fact  that  the  present  air  springs 
have  had  practically  no  change  since  he  announced  them 
ready  for  commercial  work  is  a  good  example  of  his  ability 
in  this  direction,  I  presume  a  great  deal  of  this  came  by 
experience  in  the  air-brake  art  for  a  device  such  as  the  air 
spring. 

The  introduction  of  a  pump  into  the  air  spring  made 
the  operation  feasible  and  also  broadly  patentable.  With 
this  arrangement  many  people  have  for  long  periods  been 
sceptical  about  the  ability  of  the  air  spring  to  maintain 
air  under  pressure  in  such  small  volumes,  but  the  fact  that 
the  oil  seal  prevents  any  leakage  of  air  and  that  leakage 
of  oil  is  taken  care  of  by  automatically  pumping  it  back 


AIR  SPRING  FOR  AUTOMOBILES  255 

by  the  plunger,  makes  the  spring  a  practical  device.  We 
made  a  great  many  experiments  on  proportions  and  opera- 
tions of  springs,  and  a  number  of  different  sizes,  also  a  great 
many  schemes  for  the  suspension  of  the  chassis  of  the  auto- 
mobile. 

Mr.  Westinghouse  was  always  enthusiastic  about  the 
outlook  for  this  project,  as  it  affected  transportation,  one 
of  the  greatest  industries  in  the  world,  and  he  often  said 
to  me  that  the  spring  was  not  limited  in  its  application  to 
automobiles,  but  that  he  expected  to  apply  it  to  railway 
cars  as  well. 

In  the  midst  of  the  air-spring  development  Mr.  West- 
inghouse became  interested  in  other  devices  and  arrange- 
ments which  might  affect  the  riding  qualities  of  automo- 
biles, and  we  began  a  very  comprehensive  series  of  develop- 
ments and  experiments  in  spring  wheels,  cushion  tires, 
etc.,  and  all  sorts  of  appliances  were  tried,  not  only  as  built 
by  our  company,  but  whenever  a  new  device  of  this  order 
appeared  on  the  market  Mr.  Westinghouse  immediately 
had  it  investigated,  either  through  the  Machine  Company 
or  personally.  Some  very  ingenious  spring-wheel  arrange- 
ments were  designed,  constructed,  and  reduced  to  practice. 
Mr.  Westinghouse  never  believed  in  a  paper  design,  but 
insisted  on  its  application,  which  very  often  showed  the  im- 
practicability of  devices,  which  on  paper  appeared  most 
promising.  It  was  by  these  practical  demonstrations  that 
his  judgment  was  almost  always  strengthened  for  future 
developments.  He  was  extremely  quick  to  see  a  situation 
and  to  judge  of  the  possible  merits  of  any  device. 

During  this  development  period  of  the  air  spring  we  were 
also  carrying  on  a  very  exhaustive  line  of  experiments  and 
development  work  in  turbines  for  marine  purposes  and  for 
the  commercialization  of  the  reduction  gear;  and  coming 
in  addition  to  the  regular  business  of  the  company,  it 
brought  a  large  demand  on  the  tune  and  energies  of  the 
shop,  the  experimental  division,  and  some  of  the  engineers. 
Mr.  Westinghouse  relied  on  me  personally  to  be  able  to 
tell  him  about  any  of  these  developments  and  I  found  it 


256  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

necessary  to  keep  in  the  closest  touch  with  them,  which, 
while  quite  confining,  was  intensely  interesting  and  gave 
me  an  association  with  him  and  a  training  which  I  would 
not  have  missed  for  anything. 

He  had  said  to  me  many  times  that  he  thought  the  air 
spring  was  one  of  the  best  things  he  had  done.  I  feel  quite 
convinced  that  if  he  had  lived  its  application  would  have 
been  more  widely  extended  and  its  introduction  into  auto- 
mobile work  would  have  been  accelerated  quite  materially. 

THE  STEEL  CAR 

In  the  decade  before  the  Great  War  the  people  of  the 
United  States  saw  the  beginning  of  the  steel  passenger 
car  on  railroads,  and  they  saw  its  use  extend  quickly  from 
the  tunnels  of  New  York  out  over  all  the  great  lines  of  rail- 
road. Westinghouse  was  one  of  a  very  small  group  of  men 
who  initiated  and  brought  about  this  event.  No  doubt 
others  had  speculated  about  it  in  a  more  or  less  academic 
way,  but  it  is  possible,  and  indeed  probable,  that  the  first 
man  of  authority  and  influence,  having  actual  responsibility 
for  immediate  construction,  to  suggest  and  urge  steel  cars 
was  Mr.  George  Gibbs.  Whether  Gibbs  first  suggested 
this  to  Westinghouse,  or  whether  Westinghouse  first  sug- 
gested it  to  Gibbs,  does  not  seem  to  be  a  matter  of  prime 
importance.  They  worked  together,  and  Westinghouse 
threw  into  the  scale  strong  conviction  and  his  influence 
and  force.  Another  powerful  man  soon  joined  the  move- 
ment, Mr.  Cassatt,  then  president  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad. 

The  Rapid  Transit  Subway  Construction  Company  had 
been  formed  to  build  the  first  subway  railroad  in  New  York. 
Mr.  Gibbs  was  appointed  consulting  engineer  in  charge  of 
the  designing  and  installation  of  the  mechanical  equipment, 
which  included  road-bed,  track,,  signals,  and  cars.  Mr, 


THE  STEEL  CAR  257 

L.  B.  Stillwell  was  consulting  engineer  in  charge  of  the  elec- 
trical equipment.  They  were  set  to  do  pioneer  work.  They 
were  faced  with  a  set  of  conditions  that  had  never  been 
brought  together  before.  They  had  to  consider  and  largely 
to  contrive  methods  and  materials  to  meet  these  conditions. 
Heavy  and  fast  trains  were  to  be  run  at  short  intervals, 
calling  for  volumes  and  potentials  of  electric  current  never 
before  used  in  railway  working,  and  this  was  to  be  done 
in  tunnels  just  large  enough  to  take  the  four  tracks.  Only 
an  engineer,  and  not  every  engineer,  has  the  background 
to  enable  him  to  realize  the  complications  of  the  situation. 

Before  the  mind  of  Mr.  Gibbs  arose  the  danger  of  fire 
with  wooden  cars,  in  case  of  a  wreck  or  a  short  circuit.  He 
talked  often  with  Westinghouse  about  the  danger  and  the 
possible  precautions.  Westinghouse  asked  why  steel  cars 
should  not  be  used.  At  that  time  there  were  no  railroad 
passenger  cars  built  entirely  of  steel,  and  no  one  had  seri- 
ously proposed  them.  Mr.  Gibbs  replied  that  he  thought 
that  a  practicable  steel  car  could  be  built,  but  the  tunnel 
construction  was  well  advanced  and  the  time  was  short 
in  which  to  design  a  car  from  the  ground  up  and  get  it  built, 
in  quantity,  for  the  opening.  A  great  number  of  details 
must  be  worked  out  to  get  a  car  of  acceptable  weight,  cost, 
appearance,  and  performance,  going  back  to  shapes  not 
then  made  by  the  mills  and  involving  new  dies,  rolls,  and 
patterns.  He  had  designed  a  wooden  car,  metal-sheathed 
outside  and  sheathed  underneath  with  fireproof  material. 
He  proposed  to  install  all  wiring  in  fireproof  conduits  and 
to  suspend  all  apparatus  below  and  out  of  contact  with 
the  underfloor.  It  was  recognized  that  this  did  not  fully 
meet  the  case,  but  it  did  diminish  the  fire  risk. 

Westinghouse  was  urgent  and  ready  to  help,  and  Mr. 
Gibbs  undertook  to  design  a  sample  steel  car.  He  talked 


258  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

with  Mr.  Cassatt,  who  faced  the  same  problem  in  the  proj- 
ect for  electrical  operation  of  the  tunnels  into  New  York. 
Mr.  Cassatt  at  once  fell  in  with  the  plan  and  offered  to 
have  the  car  built  at  cost  in  the  Altoona  shops  of  the 
Pennsylvania.  The  car  was  designed  and  built.  To  save 
time,  commercial  shapes  were  used.  Consequently,  the 
car  was  not  handsome,  and  it  was  too  heavy  to  be  finally 
acceptable;  but  it  was  the  basis  of  a  redesign.  There  was 
strong  opposition  to  the  innovation,  not  only  amongst  the 
subway  people  but  in  the  shops  where  the  car  was  built; 
but  the  hearty  indorsement  and  reliable  cheerfulness  of 
Westinghouse  were  always  sustaining,  and  the  practical 
support  of  Mr.  Cassatt  was  a  great  help.  The  interest  of 
two  of  the  most  important  car-building  companies  was 
aroused.  They  consented  to  make  propositions  to  build 
300  steel  cars  and  to  guarantee  their  delivery  within  a  cer- 
tain date  at  a  reasonable  price — about  10  per  cent  more 
than  a  wooden  car. 

Thus  assured,  Gibbs  recommended  that  the  first  equip- 
ment of  the  subway  should  be  all-steel  cars.  Of  course 
there  was  a  fight,  and  a  hard  one.  Those  who  believed  in 
the  present  expediency,  if  not  the  final  superiority  of  fire- 
proofed  wooden  cars,  were  many  and  strong  and  well  in- 
trenched. The  matter  got  into  the  daily  newspapers,  and 
one  great  journal  pointed  out  the  appalling  prospect  of 
dreadful  electric  shocks  to  passengers  imprisoned  in  a  steel 
car  charged  with  high-tension  current.  But  the  steel  car 
won.  Gibbs  says:  "Without  Mr.  Westinghouse's  con- 
fidence and  encouragement,  and  his  insistence  upon  the 
safest  possible  construction  for  cars  used  in  tunnels,  and 
Mr.  Cassatt's  progressive  policy  in  the  same  direction,  it 
is  evident  that  steel  cars  might  not  have  been  in  general 
use  today.  Credit  should  be  given  also  to  Mr.  Belmont 


REDUCING  COPPER  ORE  259 

(President  of  the  Subway  Construction  Company)  for  his 
willingness  to  undertake  what  must  have  seemed  to  him 
to  be  an  expensive  experiment  for  the  sake  of  providing 
the  safest  possible  equipment." 

COPPER 

It  seemed  to  Westinghouse  that  it  would  be  an  excellent 
thing  if  the  Westinghouse  interests  could  have  their  own  sup- 
ply of  copper;  or,  at  any  rate,  a  supply.  When  the  yearly 
output  of  a  concern  making  electrical  machinery  runs  into 
scores  of  millions  of  dollars,  the  item  of  copper  bought  is 
big.  Obviously,  with  mines  of  its  own  the  manufacturing 
company  can  have  some  control  over  prices,  or  at  least  share 
in  the  profits  of  high  prices.  When  Westinghouse  ventured 
into  copper-mining,  as  in  many  other  cases,  he  did  not  ask 
the  Electric  Company  to  risk  company  money;  he  risked 
his  own.  Naturally,  a  part  of  his  venture  was  in  search  of 
new  methods  of  reducing  lean  or  refractory  ores.  That 
was  inevitable  with  his  temperament.  Furthermore,  to 
buy  developed  mines  and  to  work  them  by  familiar  and 
customary  methods  would  take  too  much  capital,  and  would 
leave  too  small  a  margin  of  profit  over  interest  charges,  if 
any.  To  look  for  great  unknown  deposits  of  rich  ore  was 
a  slow  and  uncertain  way  of  attacking  the  situation;  but 
there  was  always  the  chance  of  finding  new  ways  of  han- 
dling ore  now  unprofitable.  In  the  same  spirit  Edison  spent 
millions  in  trying  to  win  the  iron  from  the  lean  ore  of  the 
old  mines  of  New  Jersey  by  an  elaborate  and  costly  scheme 
of  magnetic  separation. 

Westinghouse  bought  heavily  in  remote  copper  fields 
in  southern  Arizona  where  the  ore  was  refractory,  the  haul 
to  a  railroad  was  long  and  hard,  and  water  was  scarce;  con- 
sequently the  purchase  price  was  relatively  low.  In  the 


260  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

plant  at  Pittsburgh  which  had  been  built  for  his  fuel-gas 
experiments  he  began  experiments  with  a  new  process  for 
reducing  copper  ore,  and  he  spent  much  money  there,  his 
own  money,  not  the  company's.  He  bought  an  old  copper 
mine  in  Vermont  as  a  convenient  source  of  ore  for  experi- 
ment. 

The  net  result  is  summed  up  in  a  cablegram  which  is 
a  classic  in  the  Westinghouse  traditions.  His  multitudinous 
foreign  enterprises,  British  and  Continental,  required  the 
help  of  many  strong  financiers,  and  the  Rothschilds  had 
some  part  in  them.  This  led  to  pleasant  personal  relations 
with  several  members  of  the  family.  When  dining  with 
Lord  Rothschild  at  Newcourt,  Westinghouse  told  of  the 
process  for  reducing  copper  ore  which  he  was  working  out 
at  Pittsburgh.  Lord  Rothschild  was  particularly  interested 
in  this,  and  asked  to  be  kept  informed  of  the  results  of 
the  experiments.  A  story  was  told  at  this  dinner  of  a  Chi- 
cago gentleman  given  to  exaggeration  and  somewhat  con- 
scious of  its  perils.  It  was  related  that  at  another  dinner- 
party a  man  had  described  the  hothouses  of  the  Duke 
of  Portland  at  Welbeck.  The  gentleman  from  Chicago 
said  they  could  not  compare  in  size  with  those  of  his 
cousin.  One  of  these  was  400  feet  long,  300  feet  high,  and 
(then  a  friend  kicked  him  under  the  table) — and  two  feet 
wide.  Westinghouse  went  back  to  America.  Months  later 
his  associate  in  London,  Lukach,  who  was  in  relations  with 
Lord  Rothschild,  and  who  had  told  the  hothouse  story, 
received  this  cable:  "Process  two  feet  wide.  Westing- 
house."  All  the  code  books  in  the  office  were  searched  in 
vain,  but  finally  Lukach  remembered  that  Westinghouse 
had  promised  to  cable  the  result  of  the  copper  process. 

Failing  the  development  of  a  magic  process  for  reducing 


ARIZONA  MINES  261 

refractory  ore,  the  Arizona  mine  has  not  been  profitable 
except  during  the  short  period  of  war  prices  for  copper, 
but  it  is  not  without  value,  and  is  a  part  of  the  Westing- 
house  estate. 


CHAPTER  XV 
EUROPEAN  ENTERPRISES 

WESTTNGHOUSE'S  plans  for  commercial  expansion  in- 
cluded the  world.  These  vast  plans  must  have  become 
somewhat  definite  pretty  early  in  his  career.  We  have 
seen  that  three  years  after  the  air  brake  was  started  in 
America  he  was  in  England,  and  that  within  another  year 
a  Pennsylvania  company  was  formed  to  handle  export  busi- 
ness. Nine  years  later  the  first  English  company  was  or- 
ganized. This  was  soon  followed  by  German,  French,  and 
Russian  brake  companies,  and  later  by  the  brake  companies 
of  Italy  and  Australasia.  As  the  electric  field  opened  up, 
another  group  of  Westinghouse  companies  spread  over 
Europe.  We  find  listed  some  twenty-two  foreign  com- 
panies, including  a  Hungarian  automobile  company. 

Westinghouse  wrote:  "I  have  never  had  much  difficulty 
in  working  out  plans,  but  my  greatest  difficulty  seems  to 
have  been  in  finding  enough  men  to  carry  out  such  plans." 
It  will  be  recalled  that  young  Napoleon  could  not  find  a 
man  in  Italy,  and  the  Pharaohs  had  to  import  ability  from 
Asia.  This  difficulty  in  finding  men  is  common  to  the  hu- 
man race.  Lord  Fisher  said  "the  secret  of  efficiency  is 
favoritism,"  which,  being  interpreted,  is  "when  you  find 
capacity  grab  it  and  push  it  forward,  regardless  of  age  or 
rank."  This  principle  appealed  to  Westinghouse's  prac- 
tical common  sense,  and  he  acted  on  it  often.  Yet  he  was 
loyal  to  his  men  and  had  a  punctilious  sense  of  justice.  He 
kept  some  men  too  long  in  high  places,  and  he  injected  into 
the  organizations  some  men  who  had  later  to  be  ejected — 
he  being  humau 

262 


EUROPEAN  COMPANIES  263 

In  1896  Westinghouse  wrote  a  letter  to  an  officer  of  the 
Westinghouse  Electric  Company,  Limited  (called  the  Lon- 
don Company),  setting  forth  in  some  detail  his  idea  of  a  vast 
scheme  of  foreign  companies.  At  that  time  there  existed,  be- 
sides the  London  Company,  the  Westinghouse  Brake  Com- 
pany, Limited,  in  England,  and  the  Westinghouse  Bremsen 
Gesellschaft,  in  Germany,  all  having  broad  territorial  rights. 
The  London  Company  was  registered  in  1889.  The  West- 
inghouse Electric  Company  (American)  transferred  to  it 
all  its  patent  rights  for  the  whole  world  outside  of  North 
and  South  America.  This  was  a  trading  and  constructing 
company.  It  did  not  manufacture,  but  did  install  ma- 
chinery on  contract.  The  three  brake  companies,  Amer- 
ican, English,  and  German,  covered  the  world,  trading  with- 
in their  defined  territories.  The  1896  plan  contemplated 
the  formation  of  new  companies — British,  French,  Belgian, 
German,  Russian,  and  Austrian  (to  include  the  Balkan 
States).  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Switzerland,  "should  prob- 
ably be  reserved  for  the  Westinghouse  Company  (British) 
as  part  of  its  territory."  Italy  is  not  mentioned  in  this 
letter  but  an  Italian  brake  company  was  formed  in  1906, 
and  an  electric  company  in  1907.  These  European  com- 
panies and  the  parent  companies  in  America  were  to  take 
care  of  the  habitable  globe. 

Trade  relations  within  the  companies  were  provided  for. 
It  might  be  advantageous  for  one  company  to  sell  or  con- 
struct in  the  territory  of  another.  This  might  be  done  on 
payment  of  a  stipulated  percentage  fee.  Patent  rights 
were  to  be  exchanged,  as  were  drawings,  plans,  specifica- 
tions, and  engineering  and  manufacturing  information. 
The  shops  and  equipment  of  the  Westinghouse  Electric 
&  Manufacturing  Company  and  the  Machine  Company 
at  East  Pittsburgh  were  designed  for  the  manufacture, 


264  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

not  only  of  electrical  material  but  of  locomotives,  steam 
and  electric,  and  of  stationary  engines,  steam  and  gas.  The 
companies  were  prepared  to  contract  for  complete  instal- 
lations of  shops  and  city  railways.  It  was  proposed  to  put 
the  capacities  and  experience  of  the  American  companies 
at  the  service  of  the  European  companies.  In  short,  it  was 
proposed  to  provide  for  the  most  complete  cooperation 
that  jealous  and  narrow-minded  men  and  broad  and  gen- 
erous men  are  capable  of. 

Any  man  could  dream  such  a  dream,  but  not  many  men 
have  the  courage  to  try  to  make  it  come  true,  and  the  men- 
tal and  moral  forces  to  effectively  back  their  courage. 
Westinghouse  lived  to  see  most  of  this  dream  become  a 
solid  reality. 

In  the  plan  of  1896  Canada  was  not  included.  In  Oc- 
tober 1896,  the  Westinghouse  Air  Brake  Company  (United 
States)  began  the  purchase  of  land,  buildings,  and  machinery 
in  Hamilton,  Ontario,  with  a  view  to  the  manufacture  of 
brakes,  and  in  the  January  following  the  Westinghouse 
Manufacturing  Company,  Ltd.,  was  incorporated  under 
the  laws  of  Canada.  In  July  1903,  the  Canadian  West- 
inghouse Company,  Ltd.  was  chartered,  and  took  over  all 
the  Westinghouse  interests  and  operations  in  Canada — 
electrical,  steam  engineering,  and  air  brake.  This  com- 
pany still  exists,  strong  and  prosperous. 

The  British  Westinghouse  Electric  &  Manufacturing 
Company  was  organized  in  1899.  It  built  great  and 
famous  shops  at  Manchester,  and  became  an  important 
producer.  It  is  counted  amongst  Westinghouse's  mistakes. 
It  was  never  successful  financially  and  was  a  heavy  burden 
upon  the  home  company  and  upon  Westinghouse  person- 
ally. Nevertheless,  it  was  a  striking  example  of  his  pre- 
science. Mr.  Paul  D.  Cravath,  who  for  many  years  was 


THE  BRITISH  COMPANY  265 

closely  associated  with  Westinghouse,  speaking  to  a  gather- 
ing of  the  veterans  of  the  Air  Brake  Company,  said : 

I  am  sure  none  of  us  has  ever  known  a  man  who  com- 
bined faith,  imagination,  and  courage  as  they  were  com- 
bined in  George  Westinghouse.  Those  who  are  familiar 
with  his  enterprises  are  constantly  finding  new  evidence 
of  these  qualities.  A  very  interesting,  almost  dramatic, 
instance  came  to  my  attention  in  London  during  the  last 
year  of  the  war.  I  presume  that  most  men  would  look 
upon  the  British  Westinghouse  Company  enterprise  as 
one  of  Mr.  Westinghouse's  failures.  In  one  sense  it  was  a 
failure.  Yet  the  conception  out  of  which  that  enterprise 
grew  was  the  conception  of  a  great  man,  although  a  man 
whose  vision,  imagination  and  courage  carried  him  beyond 
the  limits  of  prudence  and  business  discretion.  About  two 
years  ago  perhaps  the  strongest  group  of  industrial  leaders 
in  Great  Britain  made  up  their  minds  to  enter  the  electrical 
field.  They  bought  the  British  Westinghouse  Company. 
One  day  during  the  last  year  of  the  war  one  of  these  men 
asked  me  to  spend  an  evening  with  him  and  four  or  five 
of  his  associates  and  give  them  such  information  as  I  could 
about  the  early  history  of  the  British  Westinghouse  Com- 
pany. Their  leader  asked  me  to  explain  to  them  the 
reasons  that  prompted  Mr.  Westinghouse  to  organize  the 
British  Westinghouse  Company  and  build  the  great  works 
at  Manchester  which  until  the  outbreak  of  the  war  were 
larger  than  the  business  that  the  company  had  been  able 
to  secure  would  justify.  I  tried  to  give  them  Mr.  West- 
inghouse's conceptions  as  I  remember  them :  that  the  alter- 
nating current  was  sure  to  become  the  foundation  of  all 
central-station  development;  that  England  was  an  ideal 
field  for  the  extensive  use  and  distribution  of  electricity; 
that  on  a  large  proportion  of  the  railroads  the  traffic  was 
so  dense  that  they  were  practically  suburban  roads  accord- 
ing to  American  standards;  that  the  most  economical 
method  of  providing  electric  power  for  the  United  Kingdom 
was  by  great  generating  stations  near  the  coal  mines  so 


266  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

that  instead  of  distributing  coal,  electricity  would  be  dis- 
tributed; that  instead  of  many  central  stations  scattered 
all  over  the  country  there  should  be  few;  that  as  the  finan- 
cial structure  of  the  railroad  enterprises  of  Great  Britain 
was  such  that  they  would  find  it  difficult  to  raise  new 
capital  there  should  be  separate  organizations,  separately 
financed,  for  developing  the  electrical  power  and  selling 
it  to  the  railroads.  When  I  had  finished  my  story  the 
leader  of  the  group  to  whom  I  was  talking  turned  to  his 
associates  and  said  with  real  emotion:  "This  is  most  re- 
markable. The  vision  of  Mr.  Westinghouse  is  almost  word 
for  word  our  vision.  The  plans  that  he  had  formed  are 
identical  with  the  plans  that  we  have  formed  and  that  we 
propose  to  carry  through,"  and  then  he  turned  to  me  and 
said:  "Mr.  Westinghouse's  conception  of  what  should  have 
been  done  was  faultless.  It  was  his  misfortune  that  he 
was  a  quarter  of  a  century  ahead  of  the  times.  If  Great 
Britain  had  accepted  his  advice  countless  millions  of  waste 
would  have  been  saved.  It  will  now  be  necessary  to  scrap 
enormous  investments  in  un-economical  plants  to  make 
way  for  the  carrying  out  of  Mr.  Westinghouse's  plan."  He 
added  that,  "so  conservative,  so  slow  to  adopt  new  ideas 
are  the  British  people  that  even  today  the  government 
will  be  compelled  to  apply  the  spur  of  legislation  to  compel 
the  British  nation  to  adopt  the  measures  which  were  pro- 
posed by  Mr.  Westinghouse  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago, 
and  which  we  are  urging  today."  When  he  finished  I  said: 
"You  must  agree,  gentlemen,  that  while  Mr.  Westinghouse 
may  not  have  always  been  a  prudent  man,  he  was  a  great 
man."  "Yes,"  said  their  leader,  "Mr.  Westinghouse  was 
a  great  man." 

What  the  newspapers  of  the  time  called  the  "Invasion 
of  England"  was  a  mistake,  but  it  was  the  kind  of  mistake 
inevitable  in  the  temperament  of  the  man,  the  sort  of  mis- 
take common  in  the  history  of  the  pioneering  of  civiliza- 
tion. Huxley  said:  "The  advance  of  mankind  has  every- 
where depended  on  the  production  of  men  of  genius." 


CLYDE  VALLEY  POWER  COMPANY  267 

Two  years  after  the  formation  of  the  British  Company 
a  Securities  Company  was  organized  to  aid  in  the  flotation 
of  the  securities  of  electric  and  power  installations  con- 
tracting with  the  British  Company.  Amongst  other  enter- 
prises this  company  took  over  the  electrification  of  the 
Mersey  Railway,  and  the  development  of  a  power  com- 
pany in  the  Clyde  Valley  in  which  company  Bonar  Law 
was  sometime  Chairman  of  the  Board.  The  Clyde  Valley 
enterprise  is  so  good  an  example  of  the  working  out  of  the 
central-station  thought  dominant  in  the  mind  of  Westing- 
house  for  many  years  that  we  are  fortunate  to  be  able  to 
give  the  following  account  of  it  furnished  by  the  present 
Secretary  of  the  Clyde  Valley  Electrical  Power  Company: 

The  development  of  the  electric  power  supply  in  Great 
Britain  by  power  companies  operating  on  a  large  scale  over 
considerable  territory,  both  industrial  and  rural,  was  the 
direct  outcome  of  the  greater  freedom  from  restrictive 
measures  granted  by  the  Electric  Lighting  (Clauses)  Act 
of  1899.  Among  the  companies  formed  for  this  purpose 
was  the  Clyde  Valley  Electrical  Power  Company,  which 
obtained  from  Parliament  a  franchise  or  act  in  August 
1901,  confirming  to  the  company,  the  exclusive  right  for 
electrical  power  supply  over  the  highly  important  indus- 
trial area  formed  in  the  valley  and  on  the  banks  of  the 
river  Clyde  in  Scotland,  and  extending  about  735  square 
miles.  This  area  with  its  shipyards,  steel  works,  blast- 
furnaces, engineering  establishments,  collieries,  etc.,  is  a 
highly  industrialized  center  of  activity  and  an  ideal  one  in 
which  the  advantages  to  the  general  community  of  elec- 
trical power  generation  and  distribution  on  a  large  scale 
can  be  attained  and  demonstrated  along  the  lines  success- 
fully adopted  by  the  great  American  power  undertakings. 
Such  being  the  case  it  followed  as  a  matter  of  sound  policy 
that  the  work  of  carrying  out,  in  its  initial  stages,  this  large 
enterprise  should  be  intrusted  to  a  company  possessed  of 


268  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

the  necessary  experience  in  similiar  work  all  over  the  world. 
The  contract  for  preliminary  work,  which  involved  the 
construction  of  two  large  generating  stations  at  Mother- 
well  and  Yoker  with  8000  kilowatts  of  turbo-alternator 
plant  and  a  comprehensive  system  of  11,000-volt  mains 
with  substations,  radiating  therefrom,  was  accordingly 
placed  with  the  British  Westinghouse  Electric  &  Manufac- 
turing Company,  Ltd.,  Trafford  Park  Works,  Manchester, 
then  a  branch  works  of  the  parent  company  in  Pittsburgh, 
U.  S.  A.  Work  was  commenced  in  1902,  and  the  installation 
was  handed  over  to  the  operating  company  late  in  1905, 
the  cost  running  to  £480,000. 

Mr.  Westinghouse  took  a  deep  and  personal  interest  in 
the  whole  scheme,  and  was  visiting  the  works  shortly  be- 
fore the  opening  of  Yoker  Power  Station  in  1905.  He  was 
in  regular  touch  with  the  company's  progress,  from  its  in- 
ception onward,  being  a  firm  believer  in,  and  indeed  one 
of  the  strongest  exponents  of,  what  is  now  the  accepted 
practice  of  progressive  countries,  viz.,  the  large,  well- 
situated,  central  electric-power  generating  station  with 
high-voltage  transmission  lines  to  industrial  centers.  The 
Power  Company,  which  is,  apart  from  municipal  under- 
takings, the  only  one  operating  in  the  West  of  Scotland, 
is  now  a  very  large  concern  with  three  power  stations,  hav- 
ing 72,500  kilowatts  of  generating  plant  in  use  or  under  con- 
struction, 193  substations  and  switch  houses,  285  miles 
of  extra  high-tension  lines  and  cables,  and  45  miles  of  low- 
tension  lines  and  cables,  and  45  miles  of  low-tension  dis- 
tribution cables.  The  Electricity  (Supply)  Bill,  1919,  is 
a  still  further  confirmation  of  the  soundness  of  Mr.  West- 
inghouse's  views  as  to  central  generating  stations,  these 
stations,  under  the  segis  of  the  electricity  commissioners, 
as  appointed  tinder  the  act,  being  proposed  at  numerous 
favorable  sites  in  Great  Britain  with  every  prospect  of  suc- 


An  interesting  side  fact  is  that  the  cost  of  operation  of 
the  Clyde  Valley  Company  is  twenty-five  per  cent  less 


FRENCH  COMPANIES  269 

than  that  of  the  Glasgow  Corporation  (Municipal)  for  the 
same  kind  of  service. 

Westinghouse  began  work  in  France  early.  In  1879,  he 
established  a  little  shop  in  Paris  to  make  brakes.  This 
was  ten  years  after  the  beginning  of  the  first  brake  com- 
pany in  America,  and  seven  years  after  the  first  British 
brake  company.  This  French  enterprise  was  under  the 
English  company,  but  the  installation  and  first  manufac- 
ture were  directed  by  an  American  from  Pittsburgh  as  chief 
foreman.  Operations  began  with  orders  from  five  French 
railroad  companies,  and  in  twelve  years  it  was  necessary 
to  find  room  for  growth  outside  of  the  city.  Land  was 
bought  from  the  Duke  of  Orleans  in  the  forest  of  Bondy, 
a  mile  from  the  nearest  town  and  about  thirty  miles  from 
Paris,  and  here  was  built  a  little  town  which  they  called 
Freinville  (Braketown)  in  the  Commune  of  Sevran.  The 
works  are  on  the  Canal  de  1'Ourcq,  with  easy  rail  connec- 
tions with  the  Northern  and  the  Eastern  Railways.  This 
French  enterprise  has  always  prospered.  Until  March 
1915,  it  was  a  dependency  of  one  of  the  other  companies; 
then  it  became  independent  as  the  Compagnie  des  Freins 
Westinghouse.  Its  war  work  was  varied  and  much  ap- 
preciated, especially  the  work  of  precision  in  range-finders 
and  mountain  guns.  The  works  have  lately  been  greatly 
enlarged  to  take  care  of  important  orders  for  switch  and 
signal  apparatus. 

The  French  Company  (SocietS  Anonyme  Westinghouse) 
was  organized  in  1901.  This  company  took  over  from  older 
companies  the  electric  business  and  the  brake  business  in 
France,  Belgium,  Spain,  Portugal,  Italy,  and  Holland. 
This  is  the  most  important  foreign  company  after  the  Brit- 
ish Westinghouse  and  the  Westinghouse  Brake  Company. 
It  was  long  unprofitable  and  a  burden  on  the  home  com- 


270  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

pany,  but  after  eight  years  or  so  it  turned  the  corner  and 
it  is  now  making  money.  It  was  another  case  of  building 
in  advance  of  the  market. 

The  Societa  Italiana  Westinghouse  was  organized  in 
1907  to  execute  contracts  taken  by  the  French  company, 
a  stipulation  being  that  the  machinery  and  apparatus 
should  be  built  in  Italy.  The  contracts  included  generat- 
ing machinery  and  fifteen  locomotives  for  the  Giovi  line, 
a  state  railway.  A  later  order  was  for  twenty-five  loco- 
motives, part  of  them  for  the  Savona-San  Giuseppe  line. 
Works  were  built  at  Vado,  thirty  miles  from  Genoa,  on  a 
fine  harbor.  The  managing  director,  the  manager  of  works, 
and  the  commercial  manager  were  Italians,  and  had  been 
in  the  employ  of  Ganz  &  Company  in  the  electrification 
of  the  Valtellina  line.  The  success  is  partly  due  to  this 
fact.  The  French  and  Italian  companies  were  closely  af- 
filiated with  the  British  Westinghouse  Company,  and  con- 
trol of  them  recently  went  into  the  hands  of  the  British 
owners,  the  Metropolitan-Vickers  Company. 

The  Russian  Brake  Company  was  started  in  1898  to 
manufacture  in  St.  Petersburg.  An  engineer  who  went 
from  Freinville  to  help  at  the  start  writes:  "The  shops 
were  ready  to  commence  work.  We  had  to  choose  a  patron 
saint  and  erect  a  small  permanent  altar  in  the  shops,  after 
which  the  priest  came  and  blessed  the  works,  sprinkling 
holy  water  on  each  floor  and  machine.  The  saint  chosen 
was  St.  George  and  the  icon  represented  St.  George  and 
the  Dragon."  In  spite  of  the  high  patronage  of  George  of 
Cappadocia  (Emerson  might  have  said  it  was  a  logical  con- 
sequence) the  life  of  this  Russian  company  was  not  always 
smooth  but,  on  the  whole,  it  prospered  until  the  Russian 
Revolution — paid  good  dividends  and  strengthened  its  finan- 
cial condition.  Then  began  troubles  which  even  St.  George 


RUSSIAN  COMPANY  AND  OTHERS  271 

could  not  avert.  Shop  management  by  the  workmen  was 
demanded,  and  the  project  for  general  nationalization  of 
industries  soon  came.  Long  negotiations  followed,  and 
they  must  have  been  ably  managed  by  the  local  officials, 
for  the  company  escaped  both  evils.  A  workman  was  put 
on  the  managing  board  and  the  chief  engineer  of  the  com- 
pany was  made  a  member  of  the  Commissariat  of  Ways  and 
Communications.  When  the  decree  was  issued  for  national- 
izing the  large  enterprises,  "works  manufacturing  brake 
apparatus"  were  excepted.  It  soon  became  impossible 
to  carry  on  the  business  in  Petrograd  for  want  of  fuel  and 
raw  material,  and  arrangements  were  made  to  remove  the 
works  to  Yaroslaff,  on  the  Volga,  and  then  the  curtain  fell. 
At  the  moment  of  writing  nothing  is  known  of  the  per- 
sonnel or  the  works.* 

From  time  to  time  various  other  European  companies 
were  started:  the  Westinghouse  Electricitats  Gesellschaft, 
the  Societe  Electrique  Westinghouse  de  Russie,  the  West- 
inghouse Cooper  Hewitt  Company,  Limited,  the  Com- 
pagnie  pour  les  Applications  des  Rayons  Ultra-Violet  in 
France,  and  another  in  Belgium;  the  Westinghouse  Metall- 
faden  Gluhlampen  Fabrik  Gesellschaft,  Vienna;  the  West- 
inghouse Metal  Filament  Lamp  Company,  Limited,  Lon- 
don; the  Compagnie  des  Lampes  a  Filaments  Metalliques, 
France,  and  still  others. 

It  does  not  seem  desirable  to  consider  in  further  detail 
the  various  European  companies.  The  plan  of  1895  was 
always  in  mind  and  was  pretty  well  carried  out,  but  often 

*  A  gentleman  who  saw  the  works  in  July  1921,  writes  (Sept.  20)  that  about 
200  men  were  at  work.  "  They  produce  some  air  brakes,  carts  for  the  army, 
and  farm  implements  which  they  use  to  exchange  with  the  peasants  for  their 
wheat,  etc."  The  manager  received  300,000  rubles  a  month,  plus  rations  of 
bread,  butter,  a  little  sugar,  etc.  He  was  bartering  away  his  clothing  and 
other  things  to  live. 


272  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

with  disappointing  financial  results.  Writing  in  1909,  to 
the  directors  of  the  Electric  Company,  Westinghouse  said: 
"The  extraordinary  growth  of  your  business  in  America 
required  the  whole  time  of  your  best  officials,  so  that 
neither  they  nor  I  had  adequate  time  to  effectively  carry 
out  the  plans  outlined.  Nevertheless,  there  was  estab- 
lished a  strongly  favorable  financial  situation  which  existed 
for  several  years,  and  a  manufacturing  record  was  created 
in  Europe  which  has  made  the  name  a  real  power  in  busi- 
ness." These  words  were  written  two  years  after  the  panic 
of  1907  and  the  receiverships  of  several  Westinghouse  Com- 
panies. The  triumphant  and  audacious  note  of  the  past 
years  is  not  heard;  but  the  old  lion  was  still  struggling  to 
save  for  his  stockholders  what  might  be  saved.  Large 
equities  were  saved.  All  of  the  important  companies  ex- 
cept the  Russian  Electric  Company  are  still  operating. 

The  results  of  the  world  plan  cannot  be  estimated  for 
years  to  come.  They  will  not  be  developed  for  years.  It 
is  not  at  all  probable  that  they  will  ever  develop,  as  West- 
inghouse hoped,  into  a  great  system  of  allied  companies 
cooperating  closely  under  one  central  management.  It 
is  not  certain  that  such  a  development  was  ever  practicable 
or  desirable.  But  those  bold  and  varied  enterprises  carried 
the  air  brake  into  Europe  and  Australasia,  and  so  helped 
on  the  evolution  of  transportation.  They  made  familiar 
to  British  and  Continental  engineers  and  financiers  the 
distribution  of  energy  by  the  alternating  current,  and  that 
spread  abroad  the  fundamental  idea  of  the  central  power 
station.  Thus  they  stimulated  and  advanced  the  manu- 
facture of  power  and  pushed  along  the  industrial  revolu- 
tion, the  most  important  phenomenon  of  the  nineteenth 
and  twentieth  centuries. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

FINANCIAL  METHODS— REORGANIZATION— 
EQUITABLE-LIFE  EPISODE 

THE  enterprises  founded  and  organized  by  Westinghouse 
are  using  not  far  from  a  quarter  of  a  billion  dollars  of  capi- 
tal. Their  financial  structures  are  of  his  building.  The 
capital  was  raised  by  him  almost  unaided,  often  in  the  face 
of  opposition.  Those  companies  now  stand  as  his  financial 
monument,  and  yet  when  some  of  his  companies  were  in 
rough  and  deep  financial  waters  one  sometimes  heard  it 
said:  "Westinghouse  is  a  great  inventor  but  he  is  no  finan- 
cier." It  is  a  common  error  to  try  to  separate  the  qualities 
of  a  man  into  pigeonholes.  It  is  just  as  reasonable  to  say 
that  a  man  has  moral  courage  but  not  physical  courage, 
which  is,  perhaps,  a  distinction  without  a  difference.  They 
are  not  separate  qualities  but  two  manifestations  of  one 
quality.  To  finance  Westinghouse  brought  the  same  quali- 
ties that  he  brought  to  the  organization  of  his  enterprises 
and  to  mechanical  and  electrical  invention.  He  looked 
out  upon  his  world  with  imagination,  courage,  hope,  enthu- 
siasm, and  determination.  He  brought  to  bear  upon  his 
projects  a  gift  for  analysis;  capacity  for  concentrated,  sus- 
tained, and  powerful  thought;  broad  and  fertile  inventive- 
ness and  quick  resourcefulness.  All  of  these  qualities  and 
faculties  we  have  seen  exercised,  over  and  over  again,  in 
other  fields  of  his  activities;  they  are  to  be  seen  also  in  his 
financial  plans.  But,  like  all  strong  men,  he  had  the  de- 
fects of  his  qualities. 

273 


274  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

To  do  great  things  one  must  be  self-reliant.  That  is  a 
commonplace.  George  Westinghouse  was  often  too  self- 
reliant  in  mechanical  things;  perhaps,  he  was  oftener  so 
in  financial  things.  It  is  related  that  the  board  of  direc- 
tors of  one  of  his  European  companies  once  rejected  his 
proposition.  When  he  insisted  that  it  was  for  the  good  of 
the  company  and  should  be  adopted,  the  chairman  said 
that  it  was  the  privilege  of  the  board  to  determine  the 
policy  of  the  company.  Westinghouse  replied  that  this 
was  quite  true,  but  it  was  his  privilege  to  say  who  should 
sit  in  the  board.  He  voted  a  majority  of  the  stock.  In 
1890  a  group  of  bankers  offered  to  lend  money  to  the  Elec- 
tric Company  if  they  could  name  the  general  manager. 
Then-  offer  was  rejected  without  discussion. 

These  little  incidents  show  the  fundamental  difference 
which  often  stood  between  Westinghouse  and  the  bankers. 
They  would  not  be  responsible  for  financing  his  enterprises 
unless  they  could  have  a  strong,  if  not  controlling,  voice 
in  the  organization  and  administration.  He  would  not 
give  up  control  to  any  man  or  group  of  men.  There  were 
elements  of  right  on  both  sides.  Bankers  are  responsible 
for  the  money  of  their  clients.  Their  obligations  as  trustees 
are  more  compelling  than  their  strictly  legal  obligations, 
if  the  two  can  be  separated.  On  the  other  hand,  Westing- 
house  saw  the  weaknesses  of  divided  control,  in  plans  and 
in  execution.  He  saw  that  which  folks  call  the  timidity 
of  capital.  Napoleon  said:  "There  is  no  greater  coward 
than  I  when  I  am  drawing  up  a  plan  of  campaign.  I  mag- 
nify every  danger,  every  disadvantage  that  can  be  con- 
ceived. When  once  my  decision  is  made,  however,  I  forget 
all  except  what  may  carry  it  through  to  success."  Perhaps 
Westinghouse  had  not  enough  of  Napoleon's  kind  of 
timidity  in  planning;  certainly  he  had  Napoleon's  audacity 
in  execution.  He  threw  everything  into  the  attack  with 


DID  HIS  OWN  FINANCING  275 

perfect  confidence  in  the  quickness  and  resourcefulness  of 
his  own  tactics.  The  bankers  said  that  he  did  not  think 
enough  about  his  reserves. 

It  is  said  elsewhere  in  this  book  that  Westinghouse 
valued  consultation;  that  was  one  of  the  reasons  why  he 
was  so  well  served.  This  is  precisely  true.  He  consulted 
philosophers  and  bankers,  administrators  and  machinists, 
and  then  he  made  up  his  own  mind,  and  nothing  milder 
than  an  earthquake  could  budge  him.  We  have  seen  him 
sitting  like  a  rock,  serene,  gentle,  and  unmoved  when 
every  member  of  the  board  of  directors  was  against  him. 
Whether  he  was  determined  or  just  obstinate  depends 
upon  your  point  of  view.  The  result  of  such  fundamental 
differences  of  opinion  was  that  Westinghouse  usually  had 
to  do  his  own  financing.  He  did  it  with  great  ability  and 
ingenuity,  but  it  may  have  been  unfortunate  that  he  tried 
to  do  it  at  all.  It  absorbed  a  prodigious  amount  of  time 
and  energy  in  doing  what  could  have  been  as  well  done  by 
specialists,  leaving  him  free  to  do  things  that  they  could 
not  do. 

For  the  reasons  just  given,  Westinghouse's  enterprises, 
especially  during  the  early  periods  of  development,  were 
not  financed  through  groups  of  strong  bankers  and  syn- 
dicates, which  is  the  customary  way  of  financing  large 
enterprises.  He  secured  capital  for  his  enterprises  by  per- 
sonal appeals,  largely  to  his  friends  and  to  his  stockholders. 
In  this  way  enormous  sums  of  money  were  invested  in  his 
enterprises  by  persons  who  relied  on  their  faith  in  West- 
inghouse. He  had  such  an  impelling  personality  and  such  a 
remarkable  power  for  effectively  presenting  his  case  that  he 
frequently  secured  large  sums  of  money  from  men  of  wealth.* 

*  Amongst  his  assistants  in  this  personal  financing  should  be  especially 
mentioned  his  financial  secretary,  Mr.  Walter  D.  Uptegraff. 


276  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

Westinghouse  also  showed  his  faith  in  his  enterprises  by 
investing  his  own  money  with  the  greatest  liberality.  Many 
of  his  new  enterprises  were  financed  at  the  beginning  with 
his  own  funds,  which  he  procured  by  selling,  or  borrowing 
upon,  his  holdings  of  the  securities  of  the  seasoned  enter- 
prises which  had  already  become  successful  and  established. 
He  several  times  imperilled  his  fortune  and  his  credit  by 
investing  practically  his  entire  fortune  hi  his  enterprises 
when  others  lacked  the  faith  to  invest.  The  result  was 
that  more  than  once  he  was  personally  financially  embar- 
rassed when  his  enterprises  were  able  to  take  care  of  them- 
selves. They  were  solvent,  although  temporarily  their 
shares  of  stock,  in  which  Westinghouse  had  invested,  had 
so  declined  as  to  affect  their  availability  as  collateral  for 
the  personal  loans  that  he  had  incurred  to  finance  his  enter- 
prises. 

Westinghouse's  procedure  necessarily  involved  very 
heavy  borrowings  both  by  himself  and  by  his  companies 
and  brought  periods  of  embarrassment;  but  the  fact  that 
the  enterprises  were  essentially  sound  enabled  them  to  pass 
successfully  through  every  period  of  financial  stress.  At 
no  time  did  Westinghouse  show  his  faith,  courage,  and  re- 
sourcefulness more  than  in  two  or  three  periods  of  financial 
crisis  when  almost  all  of  his  associates  and  financial  ad- 
visers had  lost  their  faith.  The  result  of  this  policy  was 
that  although  Westinghouse  died  with  but  a  moderate  for- 
tune, he  left  all  of  his  enterprises  sound  and  prosperous. 
On  the  strength  of  the  foundations  he  had  laid,  after  his 
death  his  principal  enterprises,  and  more  especially  the 
Electric  Company,  were  able  to  make  very  large  flotations 
of  securities  simply  because  the  foundations  were  sound. 
It  is  part  of  the  tragedy  of  his  life  that  he  did  not  live  to 
see  the  complete  fruition  of  his  plans. 


IDEALISM  AND  PERSONALITY  277 

The  more  one  thinks  about  the  Westinghouse  doings  in 
finance  as  well  as  in  science  and  in  commerce,  the  more 
must  he  feel  the  power  of  a  personality,  and  of  an  idealistic 
personality.  It  would  be  hard  to  find  an  organization  in 
which  personality  has  such  a  place  as  it  had,  and  still  has, 
in  the  Westinghouse  companies.  All  the  American  com- 
panies have  their  veterans'  associations  made  up  of  men 
who  have  been  twenty  years  or  twenty-one  years  in  the 
service.  The  association  of  Electric  and  Machine  Com- 
pany veterans  has  over  1300  members.  In  Japan  is  an  or- 
ganization of  over  eighty  men  who  had  more  or  less  training 
in  Westinghouse  companies  in  America.  (There  are  about 
400  such  men  in  Japan.)  These  include  admirals  in  the 
navy,  officers  of  the  imperial  railways,  and  other  men  in 
high  position.  In  London  is  another  organization  of  old 
Westinghouse  men.  When  these  men  meet  for  a  dinner 
the  important  toast  is  "Our  Founder."  They  are  never 
tired  of  hearing  about  him.  Adequate  reasons  for  this  feel- 
ing will  be  apparent  to  any  one  who  has  the  patience  to 
read  this  book,  but  we  venture  to  point  out  one  reason 
which  may  not  be  immediately  apparent.  Westinghouse 
was  always  working  for  ideals.  He  was  always  trying  to 
produce  a  perfect  air  brake,  and  this  is  true  of  everything 
else  that  he  touched.  Of  course  the  commercial  result  was 
in  his  mind,  but  that  was  only  incidental.  Commercial 
success  was  bound  to  come  automatically,  and  so  were 
other  desirable  results,  like  the  prosperity  of  his  employees; 
but  the  present  thought  was  always  to  do  larger  and  better 
things.  Such  a  spirit  at  the  head,  incarnate  in  a  man  of  such 
charm  and  force,  was  sure  to  pass  down  through  the  ranks. 

While  Westinghouse's  head  was  in  the  stars,  his  substan- 
tial feet  were  on  the  ground.  The  idealist  stood,  four- 
square and  solid,  before  his  facts.  This  situation  is  always 


278  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

interesting  but  it  is  sometimes  awkward.  Here  is  an  in- 
stance: A  project  was  up  for  electrifying  a  little  piece  of 
steam  railroad  with  dense  traffic.  It  was  in  the  beginning 
of  that  kind  of  use  of  electricity.  Direct  current  had  been 
settled  upon  for  the  good  reason  that  the  methods  and  ap- 
paratus were  much  more  developed  than  for  alternating 
current.  The  General  Superintendent  of  the  railroad  was 
present  at  a  little  dinner-party  at  which  Westinghouse 
talked  freely,  and  even  ardently,  of  the  advantages  of  alter- 
nating current.  As  the  party  was  breaking  up,  the  General 
Superintendent  seized  the  writer  and  said:  "Look  here, 
Mr.  Westinghouse  scares  me  to  death.  Are  we  making 
such  an  awful  mistake  in  using  direct  current?"  The  com- 
mercial men  were  scared,  too,  but  they  took  the  contract. 
In  principle  Westinghouse  was  right,  in  its  immediate  ap- 
plication he  was  a  little  indiscreet.  But  the  blazing  indis- 
cretions of  a  bold  and  honest  man  are  amongst  the  things 
that  make  us  like  him  and  follow  him.  Nelson  was  indis- 
creet when  he  went  into  action  with  his  stars  shining  on 
his  breast.  When  his  officers  remonstrated,  he  said,  "In 
honor  I  gained  them;  in  honor  I  will  die  with  them,"  and 
he  was  killed  by  a  sharpshooter  in  the  enemy's  tops.  He 
was  not  prudent  or  logical,  but  his  stars  and  his  spirit  shone 
through  his  fleets  and  saved  England.  High  spirit  flowed 
down  through  the  Westinghouse  companies  and  left  en- 
during love,  loyalty,  and  enthusiasm.  A  corporation  can 
have  a  soul. 

In  considering  the  financial  operations  of  George  West- 
inghouse it  should  be  remembered  that  they  were  always  for 
his  companies  first,  for  himself  second  if  at  all.  He  never 
speculated.  He  made  almost  no  investments  except  in  the 
securities  of  his  own  companies.  He  repeatedly  bought  their 
stocks  and  bonds  to  help  in  their  financial  plans.  His  iden- 


REORGANIZATION  279 

tity  with  his  companies  was  complete.  He  did  not  try  to 
get  rich  except  as  an  incidental  result  of  their  prosperity. 
One  recalls  the  matter  of  certain  options.  He  sold  one  of  his 
smaller  companies,  having  first  got  options  from  the  other 
stockholders  at  a  definite  figure.  He  sold  at  a  price  higher 
than  the  agreed  option  price.  He  did  not  pocket  the  dif- 
ference, but  distributed  it  amongst  the  stockholders  whose 
options  he  held.  If  he  had  retired  at  forty-five  and  given 
the  rest  of  his  life  to  careful  investment  and  to  scientific 
research  and  invention,  he  would  have  had  ease  and  com- 
fort, and  have  done  a  great  deal  for  the  advancement 
of  civilization.  Probably  he  would  have  been  alive  and 
active  today,  for  he  died  of  overwork.  But  we  might  as 
well  speculate  on  what  would  have  happened  if  a  glacier 
had  not  moved.  Westinghouse  did  what  his  nature  com- 
pelled him  to  do,  and  his  financial  methods,  like  all  his  other 
doings,  were  an  expression  of  that  nature. 

THE  REORGANIZATION  OF  1908 

The  organic  risks  of  the  Westinghouse  method  of  finance, 
as  described  above,  culminated  in  the  disaster  of  1907. 
The  Westinghouse  enterprises  had  spread  over  the  civilized 
world.  Their  requirements  for  working  capital  were  im- 
mense. Westinghouse  paper  was  scattered  amongst  com- 
paratively small  holders,  as  has  been  told,  and  when  the 
severe  and  wide-spread  money  crisis  of  1907  came  his  loans 
were  called.  He  was  protected  by  no  powerful  group  of 
bankers.  The  consequence  was  receivership  of  three  of  his 
companies — the  Electric  Company,  the  Machine  Company, 
and  the  Security  Investment  Company.  The  Electric  Com- 
pany was  very  much  the  largest  of  these.  Its  debt,  funded 
and  floating,  was  $43,000,000  and,  including  its  outstanding 
stock,  its  total  liabilities  were  over  $70,000,000.  A  careful 


280  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

student  of  finance  and  economics  has  written  that  this  was 
"the  most  considerable  mercantile  failure  that  America 
has  ever  witnessed."  The  Air  Brake  Company  and  the 
Union  Switch  and  Signal  Company  had  no  debts  and  ample 
cash,  and  the  Canadian  Westinghouse  Company  was  in  a 
sound  condition. 

It  took  fourteen  months  to  put  into  effect  the  plan  by 
which  the  Electric  Company  was  taken  out  of  receiver- 
ship and  returned  to  the  stockholders,  and  in  the  meantime 
other  plans,  contrived  by  able  financiers  and  lawyers,  had 
failed.  Westinghouse,  more  than  any  other  man,  worked 
out  the  simple  and  novel  plan  which  succeeded,  and  high 
authority  has  said  that  nobody  but  George  Westinghouse 
could  have  carried  it  out.  The  plan  was  called  the  Mer- 
chandise Creditors'  plan,  and  the  committee  of  these  credi- 
tors cooperated  ably  and  loyally  and  with  rare  perception 
and  foresight  in  preparing  the  plan  and  in  carrying  it  out. 
By  the  plan  the  merchandise  creditors  took  stock  in  settle- 
ment of  their  claims,  and  so  ran  more  risk  than  any  other 
class  of  creditors.  Their  courage  and  vision  were  grate- 
fully recognized. 

Mr.  Cravath,  whose  broad  experience  in  corporation  af- 
fairs is  well  known,  says:  "In  at  least  two  great  financial 
crises,  when  the  financiers  had  given  up  the  task  as  hope- 
less, Mr.  Westinghouse,  by  his  faith,  by  his  untiring  energy, 
and  by  the  exercise  of  his  power  to  influence  men,  which  I 
have  never  seen  equalled,  was  able  to  weather  the  financial 
storm,  raise  enormous  sums  of  money,  and  restore  his  enter- 
prises to  a  sound  financial  position  when  his  critics  and 
most  of  his  friends  were  certain  that  he  had  suffered  a 
crushing  defeat.  It  was  inevitable  that  a  man  of  his  bold- 
ness should  have  financial  setbacks,  but  he  never  suffered 
financial  defeat." 


CONTROL  OF  ELECTRIC  COMPANY  ENDS        281 

The  outcome  of  the  reorganization  of  1908  is  thus  told 
by  Mr.  Arthur  S.  Dewing:  "The  debt  of  the  company  was 
actually  decreased  from  $43,000,000  to  $29,000,000  and 
the  interest  charges  were  cut  from  $2,600,000  to  $1,600,000. 
The  capital  stock  was  increased  from  $28,000,000  to  $41,- 
000,000.  A  large  debt  rapidly  maturing  and  carrying  heavy 
charges  was  changed  into  a  stock  liability  with  no  fixed 
charges.  This,  in  brief,  was  the  actual  accomplishment  of 
the  Westinghouse  reorganization." 

One  element  of  this  plan  was  a  subscription  to  $6,000,000 
new  stock  to  get  working  capital.  Of  this,  Westinghouse 
himself  subscribed  $1,500,000  and  over  5000  of  his  em- 
ployees subscribed  $611,250,  a  fine  testimony  to  the  spirit 
of  loyalty  and  confidence  amongst  the  men  who  had  worked 
with  him  for  years. 

When  the  plan  went  into  effect  a  new  board  of  directors 
was  elected,  of  which  more  than  half  represented  the  bank 
and  merchandise  creditors.  A  proxy  committee  was  formed 
to  insure  the  permanence  of  the  new  management.  West- 
inghouse remained  as  president,  but  with  powers  consider- 
ably limited.  In  1911  he  gave  up  definitely  any  effort  to 
recover  his  former  controlling  position  and  his  official  re- 
lations with  the  Electric  Company  ceased,  but  his  name 
remains  as  one  of  its  great  assets.  The  immediate  force 
of  his  prodigious  ability  and  of  his  inspiration  was  in  a 
measure  lost  to  the  company,  but  he  had  built  the  struc- 
ture on  solid  foundations  and  it  is  still  illuminated  by  his 
spirit. 

THE   EQUITABLE-LIFE   EPISODE 

Westinghouse  always  had  the  confidence  of  his  stock- 
holders and  of  the  public.  He  stood  before  the  nation  as 
a  high-minded,  sincere,  unselfish  citizen,  who  was  seeking 


282  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

to  do  his  duty  and  to  be  honest  and  fair  to  the  public  and 
to  the  investors  in  his  enterprises.  The  reputation  he  had 
thus  earned  was  responsible  for  his  choice  to  fill  a  very  im- 
portant public  post,  to  which  he  gave  his  best  qualities  of 
mind  and  character. 

All  remember  the  bitter  controversy  regarding  the 
management  of  the  Equitable  Life  Assurance  Society,  which 
culminated  early  in  1905,  which  made  and  unmade  several 
reputations,  and  which  launched  Mr.  Charles  E.  Hughes 
on  his  distinguished  public  career.  It  transpired  that  the 
absolute  control  of  the  management  of  that  society  was 
vested  in  a  young  man,  the  only  son  of  the  founder,  Henry 
B.  Hyde.  The  father  was  a  man  of  colossal  ability  and 
enterprise.  It  was  charged  that  the  son  was  using  his 
power  over  the  company  with  its  $400,000,000  of  assets, 
representing  the  savings  of  over  6,000,000  individuals 
without  full  regard  to  the  interests  of  the  policyholders. 
The  leader  of  the  opposition  to  the  management  was  James 
W.  Alexander,  the  president  of  the  society.  The  two  fac- 
tions rivalled  one  another  in  charges  and  counter-charges, 
with  the  result  that  the  safety  of  the  great  institution,  and 
indeed  the  position  of  the  life-insurance  companies  generally, 
was  in  peril.  At  that  juncture,  in  June  1905,  Mr.  Thomas 
F.  Ryan  stepped  into  the  arena,  and  bought  the  majority  of 
the  stock  of  the  Equitable  Society,  having  a  par  value  of 
only  a  little  over  $50,000  and  entitled  to  earn  only  10  per 
cent  dividends.  Mr.  Ryan  paid  for  this  stock  $2,500,000 
and  publicly  stated  that  his  purpose  in  making  the  pur- 
chase was  to  save  the  Equitable  Life  Assurance  Society 
from  the  disaster  which  threatened  to  cause  untold  injury 
to  the  policyholders.  In  order  to  demonstrate  and  carry 
out  his  excellent  purpose,  Mr.  Ryan  determined  to  turn 
over  the  voting  power  of  his  stock  to  three  trustees  whose 


EQUITABLE  LIFE  TRUSTEE  283 

honesty  and  disinterestedness  and  intelligence  should  be 
so  conspicuous  that  no  one  could  question  their  motives. 
He  chose  as  the  three  trustees  Grover  Cleveland,  in  many 
ways  the  foremost  American  citizen,  Morgan  J.  O'Brien, 
the  presiding  judge  of  the  Appellate  Division  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  New  York,  and  George  Westinghouse. 
George  Westinghouse  had  no  personal  relations  with  Mr. 
Ryan,  and  was  chosen  solely  because  of  his  reputation  for 
honesty,  fair  dealing,  and  unselfishness,  which  was  of  course 
true  of  the  others.  The  appointment  of  these  gentlemen 
was  broached  in  an  identical  letter  dated  June  9,  1905, 
addressed  to  Messrs.  Cleveland,  O'Brien,  and  Westing- 
house,  an  extract  from  which  follows: 

I  have  purchased  this  block  of  stock  and  propose  to  put 
it  into  the  hands  of  a  board  of  trustees  having  no  connec- 
tion with  Wall  Street,  with  power  to  vote  it  for  the  elec- 
tion of  directors,  as  to  twenty-eight  of  the  fifty-two  direc- 
tors in  accordance  with  the  instructions  of  the  policy- 
holders  of  the  Society,  and  as  to  the  remaining  twenty-four 
directors  in  accordance  with  the  uncontrolled  judgment  of 
the  trustees.  This  division  of  twenty-eight  and  twenty- 
four  is  in  accordance  with  a  plan  of  giving  substantial  con- 
trol to  policyholders  already  approved  by  the  Superin- 
tendent of  Insurance. 

I  beg  you  to  act  as  one  of  this  board  with  other  gentle- 
men, who  shall  be  of  a  character  entirely  satisfactory  to 
you. 

I  would  not  venture  to  ask  this  of  you  on  any  personal 
grounds;  but  to  restore  this  great  trust,  affecting  so  many 
people  of  slender  means,  to  soundness  and  public  confidence 
would  certainly  be  a  great  public  service,  and  this  view 
emboldens  me  to  make  the  request. 

Mr.  Cleveland's  answer  so  well  expresses  the  feeling  of 
the  three  trustees  that  an  extract  from  it  is  given; 


284  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

After  a  little  reflection  I  have  determined  I  ought  to 
accept  this  service.  I  assume  this  duty  upon  the  express 
condition  that,  so  far  as  the  trustees  are  to  be  vested  with 
discretion  in  the  selection  of  directors,  they  are  to  be  abso- 
lutely free  and  undisturbed  in  the  exercise  of  their  judg- 
ment, and  that,  so  far  as  they  are  to  act  formally  in  vot- 
ing for  the  directors  conceded  to  policyholders,  a  fair  and 
undoubted  expression  of  policyholding  choice  will  be  forth- 
coming. 

The  very  general  anxiety  aroused  by  the  recent  unhappy 
dissensions  in  the  management  of  the  Equitable  Society 
furnishes  proof  of  the  near  relationship  of  our  people  to 
life  insurance.  These  dissensions  have  not  only  injured 
the  fair  fame  of  the  company  immediately  affected,  but 
have  impaired  popular  faith  and  confidence  in  the  security 
of  life  insurance  itself  as  a  provision  for  those  who  in 
thousands  of  cases  would  be  otherwise  helpless  against  the 
afflictive  visitations  of  fate. 

The  character  of  this  business  is  such  that  those  who 
manage  and  direct  it  are  charged  with  a  grave  trust  for 
those  who,  necessarily,  must  rely  upon  their  fidelity.  In 
those  circumstances  they  have  no  right  to  regard  the  places 
they  hold  as  ornamental,  but  rather  as  positions  of  work 
and  duty  and  watchfulness.  Above  all  things,  they  have 
no  right  to  deal  with  the  interests  intrusted  to  them  in 
such  a  way  as  to  subserve  or  to  become  confused  or  com- 
plicated with  their  personal  transactions  or  ventures. 

The  Board  of  Trustees  was  organized  with  Mr.  Cleve- 
land as  chairman,  and  Mr.  Ryan  put  before  them  this 
statement : 

I  am  the  sole  owner  of  the  502  shares  of  the  stock  of  the 
Equitable  Society  which  I  purchased  from  Mr.  Hyde,  and 
no  other  person  or  interest  has  contributed,  or  has  the  right 
to  contribute,  a  single  dollar  toward  the  purchase  of  the 
stock.  The  policyholders  with  whom  I  conferred  in  mak- 
ing the  purchase  have  had  no  connection  with  the  manage- 


WORK  OF  THE  TRUSTEES  285 

ment  of  the  Equitable  Society  and  their  connection  with 
the  transaction  was  entirely  advisory.  I  am  under  no 
obligation  to  any  living  man  with  respect  to  my  action  as 
the  owner  of  this  stock. 

A  deed  of  trust,  prepared  by  Elihu  Root  and  Paul  D. 
Cravath,  was  signed  by  Mr.  Ryan  and  the  three  Trustees 
on  June  15,  1905.  This  deed  transferred  to  the  Trustees 
the  502  shares  of  the  Equitable  stock  owned  by  Mr.  Ryan 
(the  total  was  1000  shares)  "for  the  purpose  of  vesting  in 
the  trustees  the  right  to  vote"  the  stock  in  such  a  way  that 
out  of  fifty-two  directors  twenty-eight  shall  be  policyholders 
and  selected  by  the  policyholders,  and  twenty-four  shall  be 
selected  by  the  Trustees  "in  their  sole  discretion."  The 
Trustees  were  also  authorized  to  take  any  action  necessary 
to  carry  out  the  plan  for  mutualization  of  the  Society.  The 
Trustees  were  empowered  to  fill  vacancies  in  their  own 
board,  and  the  agreement  was  to  continue  in  force  five 
years  and  "thereafter  so  long  as  the  Trustees  shall  deem 
advisable." 

The  Trustees  then  proceeded  to  follow  out  the  spirit  of 
the  preferences  of  the  policyholders  and  to  elect  as  a  ma- 
jority of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Society  policyholders 
chosen  by  the  body  of  policyholders.  It  goes  without  say- 
ing that  the  Trustees  acted  in  the  broadest  spirit  without 
in  any  way  seeking  to  advance  the  interests  of  Mr.  Ryan 
or  any  other  interests  than  those  of  the  Society.  In  this 
way  the  mutualization  of  the  Society,  that  is,  the  trans- 
ferring of  control  to  the  policyholders,  was  accomplished 
indirectly,  although  under  the  then  state  of  the  law  it  could 
not  be  accomplished  directly.  The  foundations  were  laid 
for  the  ultimate  legal  mutualization  of  the  Society,  which 
did  not  occur  until  about  ten  years  later.  The  result  of  the 
action  of  Mr.  Ryan  and  the  Trustees  was  to  end  the  scandal 


286  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

in  the  Equitable  Life  Assurance  Society,  to  regain  for  it 
the  confidence  of  the  public  and  the  policyholders,  to  in- 
stall a  sound  management,  approved  and  supported  by  the 
policyholders,  with  the  result  that  the  Society  entered  upon 
a  new  period  of  confidence  and  prosperity,  which  continues 
to  exist.  Indeed,  the  Equitable  episode  has  worked  out 
to  the  great  good  of  life  insurance  in  general,  and  every 
one  knows  what  an  important  business  that  is. 


CHAPTER  XVII 
THE  PERSONALITY  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

RELATIONS  WITH  HIS  MEN 

AFTER  reading  the  record  of  the  activities  of  George 
Westinghouse,  some  notion  of  the  man  must  remain  in  the 
mind  as  a  by-product.  Now,  let  us  look  at  him  a  little 
closer,  and  we  shall  first  consider  his  relations  to  those  who 
worked  for  him.  Those  relations  were  so  close,  so  natural 
and  sincere,  that  they  are  revealing. 

The  attitude  of  Westinghouse  toward  the  men  in  his  em- 
ploy was  not  that  of  "uplift."  It  was  not  the  outcome  of 
any  theory  of  sociology  or  economics.  It  was  not  conscious 
and  deliberate  altruism.  It  was  just  man-to-man  com- 
radeship and  good  feeling — the  most  natural  thing  in  the 
world.  He  respected  the  men  and  liked  them  because  it 
was  his  nature  to.  He  was  kind  to  them  because  he  was 
kind.  He  was  just  to  them  because  he  was  just.  They 
were  not  a  different  kind  of  men  from  bankers,  lawyers, 
doctors,  ministers,  and  engineers.  They  were  men  and 
he  had  lived  amongst  them  in  the  friendliest  relations  since 
he  was  born.  Such  was  the  foundation  of  his  simple  policy 
toward  labor  and  of  his  welfare  schemes.  When  the  beau- 
tiful Welfare  House  of  the  Air  Brake  Company  was  opened 
at  Wilmerding,  the  writer  was  asked  to  speak  for  the  di- 
rectors before  a  considerable  audience  of  workmen.  He 
thought  that  it  was  rather  clever  to  point  out  that  this  was 
no  philanthropic  enterprise — that  the  directors  realized 
that  it  was  good  business  to  make  the  men  and  their  wives 
and  daughters  more  comfortable,  and  to  help  to  improve 

287 


288  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

the  physical  and  mental  and  moral  situation.  Westing- 
house  showed  signs  of  uneasiness,  but  the  speaker  went 
on  with  that  complacency  which  sometimes  attacks  sensible 
men  when  they  get  a  chance  to  make  a  speech.  When  the 
time  came  Westinghouse  popped  up  and  said  that  the  di- 
rectors recognized  their  obligation  to  the  men  who  were 
helping  to  carry  on  the  job.  The  men  enjoyed  the  situation 
more  than  the  orator  did.  Thereafter  he,  like  Mr.  Pliable, 
"sate  sneaking  among  them." 

It  was  logical  that  Westinghouse  should  spend  money 
to  keep  the  men  at  work  through  hard  times.  An  old  em- 
ployee says:  "Mr.  Westinghouse  was  very  thoughtful 
about  his  men.  During  the  panic  in  the  early  nineties, 
and  others  following,  he  always  told  our  foreman  to  find 
us  something  to  do.  During  my  service  I  was  never  laid 
off."  A  foreman  of  those  days  says:  "During  the  panic 
of  1892  many  men  were  laid  off  at  the  Electric  Company. 
I  laid  off  some  of  our  men,  but  Mr.  Westinghouse  said: 
'Get  those  men  back  to  work;  I  am  not  hard  up.'  He  was 
away  about  three  months.  The  first  thing  he  asked  me  on 
his  return  was:  'Did  you  and  your  men  get  your  pay?' ' 
Of  course  this  policy  is  common  amongst  intelligent  em- 
ployers for  several  excellent  reasons,  and  Westinghouse 
was  too  acute"  not  to  see  all  those  reasons  and  feel  their 
force;  but  it  is  doubtful  if  they  much  affected  his  conduct. 
His  men  were  part  of  his  family,  and  his  attitude  toward 
them  was  mostly  a  matter  of  instinct. 

One  phase  of  the  family  feeling  is  shown  in  this  state- 
ment from  a  man  who  was  appointed  acting  general  super- 
intendent of  the  Electric  Works  in  1888,  still  the  days  of 
small  things  in  the  Electric  Company.  "After  I  had  been 
on  the  job  a  week  or  two,  Mr.  Westinghouse  startled  me 
somewhat  by  informing  me  that  he  had  so  many  personal 


RELATIONS  WITH  HIS  MEN  289 

experiments  under  way  at  the  works  that  he  reserved  the 
right  to  go  direct  to  any  superintendent  or  foreman  in  the 
shop  to  give  instructions  and  confer  on  their  work  with- 
out speaking  to  me  about  it.  I  objected  strenuously  to 
such  an  arrangement,  and  tried  to  make  it  clear  that  I 
could  not  maintain  discipline  when  the  president  of  the 
company  went  over  my  head  to  my  assistants  with  orders 
and  instructions  which  would  take  precedence  over  my 
own,  but,  of  course,  it  was  no  use.  Mr.  Westinghouse  had 
his  way,  and  I  had  my  troubles." 

An  old  hand  says:  "Mr.  Miller,  our  foreman,  informed 
eight  of  us  men  that  we  had  to  work  the  following  day,  it 
being  New  Year's.  Mr.  Westinghouse  put  in  a  full  day 
at  the  works,  and  I  can  assure  you  we  put  in  a  busy  one, 
with  no  stop  for  dinner.  So  we  finished  our  day's  work 
about  five  o'clock.  Mr.  Westinghouse  said:  'Miller,  those 
men  have  worked  hard  today,  and  have  not  had  any  lunch/ 
So  he  gave  us  a  fifty-dollar  bill  to  get  lunch  with,  which 
sum  was  mighty  big  in  those  days." 

Westinghouse  was  just  by  instinct,  by  inheritance,  and  by 
family  tradition.  In  practice,  his  average  of  justice  was 
high.  Sometimes  he  did  not  try  very  hard.  He  had  whole- 
some prejudices  and  greatly  enjoyed  them.  Doctor  Johnson 
said  that  one  good  prejudice  is  worth  a  thousand  reasons, 
and  Huxley  said:  "I  love  my  friends  and  hate  my  enemies 
— which  may  not  be  in  accordance  with  the  Gospel,  but 
I  have  found  it  a  good  working  creed  for  honest  men." 
Westinghouse  did  not  formulate  for  himself  any  such  rules 
of  conduct.  He  never  bothered  himself  to  analyze  his  own 
emotions;  but  he  did  not  always  go  far  out  of  his  way  to 
be  reasonable,  although  he  took  pride  in  being  a  reason- 
able man.  He  closed  a  debate  about  two  men  against 
whom  he  was  much  prejudiced  with  the  question:  "Why 


290  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

do  you  always  stick  up  for  crooks?"  The  lack  of  discrimi- 
nation would  have  shocked  an  "intellectual,"  but  it  was 
final. 

It  would  be  a  waste  of  time  to  try  to  assess  the  relative 
value  of  policy  and  feeling  in  Westinghouse's  attitude 
toward  his  men,  but  feeling  was  a  big  part  of  it.  He  was 
fond  of  young  folks;  he  liked  clean  men;  he  enjoyed  cour- 
age, candor,  and  courtesy.  To  an  executive  vice-president 
he  said:  "I  want  you  to  employ  none  but  gentlemen." 
After  going  through  the  works  a  visitor  asked:  "Where 
are  your  old  men?"  Westinghouse  answered,  "We  have 
no  old  men;  I  believe  in  young  men  for  a  new  business," 
and  looking  back  now  one  realizes  how  young  they  were. 
With  this  spirit  as  a  foundation,  there  was  built  up  a  splen- 
did corps  of  energetic,  enthusiastic,  and  able  young  men, 
with  a  fine  feeling  of  cooperation.  Amongst  these  young 
men  there  soon  grew  up  an  institution  famous  in  the  an- 
nals of  the  Electric  Company — the  Amber  Club.  This  club 
Westinghouse  helped  with  money  until  the  members  told 
him  that  it  could  stand  alone,  and  he  always  helped  it  with 
personal  interest.  He  used  sometimes  to  spend  a  part  of 
a  Sunday  afternoon  at  the  club  with  his  "boys."  The  roll 
of  this  club  bears  many  names  since  become  eminent, 
amongst  them  the  names  of  four  presidents  of  the  American 
Institute  of  Electrical  Engineers — Scott,  Mershon,  Lincoln, 
and  Townley.  All  of  those  men  think  now  with  pleasure 
and  gratitude  of  the  inspiration  which  they  drew  from  con- 
tact with  the  great  and  generous  personality  of  their  chief. 
This  contact  had  qualities  which  must  be  rare  in  combina- 
tion. It  seemed  close  and  genial.  It  seemed  so  simple  that 
it  was  almost  intimate.  But  there  was  a  border-line  of  dig- 
nity and  of  deep  respect  that  wasjiever  passed;  never  even 
closely  approached. 


ETHICAL  INFLUENCE  291 

It  is  pleasant  to  look  back  through  the  years  and  see  the 
ethical  effect  upon  those  young  men  of  close  association 
with  George  Westinghouse.  It  was  like  being  with  a  good 
father.  The  talk  was  never  didactic;  it  was  conversation. 
It  was  always  about  worth-while  things;  never  about  mean 
things.  If  gossip  became  too  personal,  he  would  say:  "  We'll 
have  no  backbiting."  An  old  officer  of  one  of  the  com- 
panies was  presiding  at  an  informal  dinner  at  which  Mr. 
Westinghouse  was  not  present.  A  youngster  told  a  risky 
story.  "Boy,"  said  the  chairman,  "you  know  Mr.  West- 
inghouse would  not  like  that."  The  youngster  sat  humili- 
ated and  ashamed.  There  soaked  into  the  mind  of  those 
young  men,  unconsciously,  not  only  lasting  contempt  for 
what  was  off  color  but  deep  disdain  for  cunning  and  craft, 
and  for  dishonesty,  moral  or  intellectual.  They  learned, 
too,  to  be  careful  not  to  boast.  Westinghouse  had  a  fine 
fund  of  irony  and  sarcasm  which  he  poured  out  on  the  brag- 
gart with  especial  joy.  The  writer  told  one  evening  of  an 
adventure  with  Indians  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  in  which 
he  thought  that  he  had  shown  unusual  courage  and  quick- 
ness of  mind.  Westinghouse  said:  "Did  you  ever  think 
that  perhaps  the  Indians  were  having  fun  with  you?" 
Poor  vanity !  How  it  curled  up  in  his  presence !  An  Eng- 
lish barrister  once  said  to  the  writer:  "English  justice  comes 
high,  but  it  is  prime."  This  seemed  sometimes  to  be  true 
of  education  by  Westinghouse.  The  process  was  not  al- 
ways agreeable,  but  the  result  was  prime.  In  the  early 
days  of  the  electrical  companies  they  had  to  put  into  re- 
sponsible places  men  just  out  of  college,  for  the  work  re- 
quired knowledge  of  kinds  of  mathematics  and  physics 
that  the  older  engineers  did  not  have.  Even  the  language 
was  unknown  to  the  older  engineers.  To  such  a  group  of 
young  engineers  the  Westinghouse  Electric  Company  was 


292  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

a  postgraduate  school  with  George  Westinghouse  as  dean. 
They  were  lucky  fellows  to  come  under  a  dean  who  gave 
them  an  ethical  start,  not  by  precept  but  by  practice. 

Feeling  often  entered  more  than  was  judicious  into  his 
selection  of  men,  and,  like  the  late  J.  Pierpont  Morgan, 
he  liked  to  have  handsome  men  around  him,  although  he 
did  not  have  Morgan's  unusual  aesthetic  sense.  One  day 
out  of  a  clear  sky  Westinghouse  asked  the  writer:  "Do  I 
make  many  mistakes  choosing  men?"  It  was  a  hard  ques- 
tion to  plump  at  a  hired  man  hi  that  abrupt  way.  We  all 
knew  that  he  had  made  many  such  mistakes,  and  a  few 
serious  ones,  and  a  careless  answer  might  call  for  specifica- 
tions. He  probably  would  say:  "I  suppose  I  made  a  mis- 
take in  hiring  you."  The  answer  was:  "With  your  quali- 
ties and  experience,  you  ought  to  make  none,  but  you  are 
often  quick  on  the  trigger."  He  mused  a  few  minutes.  At 
such  times  it  was  interesting  to  watch  his  face,  and  try  to 
guess  what  was  going  on.  Presently  he  said:  "Yes,  there 
was  So-and-so,  whom  I  thought  of  for  the  head  of  such  a 
company.  I  asked  him  to  stay  with  me  a  couple  of  weeks, 
and  I  found  that  he  had  no  business  in  him."  Nothing 
more  was  said.  So-and-so  was  a  man  of  distinguished  so- 
cial position  and  of  some  achievement,  but  his  selection 
for  one  of  the  most  important  places  that  Westinghouse 
had  to  give  would  have  been  unfortunate,  perhaps  dis- 
astrous. 

Of  course  he  had  parasites,  sycophants,  and  flatterers. 
What  man  of  place  and  power  ever  escaped  them?  He 
was  not  always  entirely  immune  to  them,  he  having  some 
trace  of  human  vanity,  but  we  think  of  no  case  where  their 
influence  lasted  long  or  did  much  harm.  He  used  to  say 
that  he  saw  well  when  the  lights  were  out.  We  knew  that 
he  sometimes  put  incompetent  men  into  high  positions,  and 


CHARM  AND  HUMOR  293 

that  his  instinctive  loyalty  sometimes  kept  men  long  after 
their  unfitness  had  become  notorious.  But  this  was  not 
altogether  damaging  to  the  organizations.  It  is  funda- 
mental that  loyalty  in  an  organization  must  begin  at  the 
top.  If  an  administrator  expects  loyalty  in  his  staff  he 
must  be  loyal  to  the  staff.  Few  leaders  can  have  had 
greater  loyalty  from  his  followers.  "Once  a  Westinghouse 
man,  always  a  Westinghouse  man/'  was  the  motto  of  his 
associates;  and  few  were  the  instances  where  one  who  had 
enjoyed  his  friendship  and  confidence  failed  him.  As  one 
of  his  lieutenants  who  took  exception  to  certain  of  his  plans 
said  after  an  interview  which  had  promised  to  be  stormy: 
"When  the  old  man  looks  at  you  with  that  smile  of  his, 
there  is  nothing  you  will  not  do  for  him." 

With  his  soft  voice,  his  kind  eyes,  and  his  gentle  smile, 
he  could  charm  a  bird  out  of  a  tree.  It  is  related  that  in 
a  knotty  negotiation  it  was  suggested  to  the  late  Jacob 
H.  Schiff,  then  the  head  of  a  great  banking-house,  that  he 
should  meet  Westinghouse.  "No,"  said  the  astute  old  Jew, 
"I  do  not  wish  to  see  Mr.  Westinghouse;  he  would  per- 
suade me."  His  gentle  and  always  ready  humor  was  a  help 
even  in  the  process  of  persuading  or  charming  bankers. 
But  it  was  not  always  gentle.  In  one  of  his  British  enter- 
prises he  decided  to  accept  the  help  of  the  X  Company. 
He  told  Lord  Blank,  with  whom  he  had  been  negotiating 
in  the  same  matter,  and  was  warned  that  the  X  Company 
were  greedy  people  who  demanded  exorbitant  terms  for 
their  financial  support.  Westinghouse  said  that  he  quite 
agreed  that  they  were  greedy,  for  they  were  asking  nearly 
as  much  as  Lord  Blank  himself  wanted. 

Lord  Cromer  said:  "I  should  term  most  of  the  leading 
British  officials  in  Egypt  humanitarians  under  any  reason- 
able interpretation  of  that  term,  but  the  responsible  nature 


294  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

of  their  position  naturally  obliges  them  to  look  at  the  ques- 
tions with  which  they  have  to  deal  from  many  and  not 
from  merely  one  point  of  view."  He  stated  a  broad  prin- 
ciple, applicable  indeed  to  all  responsible  men,  with  the 
exceptions  inevitable  to  all  general  principles.  At  the  mo- 
ment we  may  apply  the  principle  to  great  industries  in 
general  and  to  the  Westinghouse  Companies  and  George 
Westinghouse  in  particular.  We  take  the  Air  Brake  Com- 
pany as  the  oldest  and  always  the  closest  to  his  heart.  As 
the  dealings  of  Westinghouse  with  his  men,  from  vice-presi- 
dents to  sweepers,  rested  on  the  solid  foundation  of  his  own 
nature,  they  were  simple  and  consistent,  generous  and 
broad.  These  dealings,  like  all  of  the  other  doings  of  this 
self-reliant  man,  flowed  naturally  from  his  own  character. 

From  the  organization  of  the  Air  Brake  Company  in 
1869  to  this  day,  there  has  been  a  steady  policy  in  all  of 
the  Westinghouse  Companies  of  cooperation  with  the 
men,  for  the  spirit  of  George  Westinghouse  still  abides 
there.  The  "open  shop"  has  been  maintained  in  all  of 
the  Westinghouse  organizations.  It  has  often  cost  money 
and  trouble,  of  course,  but  there  has  been  no  departure 
from  the  principle.  And  the  shop  has  been  really  open. 
No  man  has  been  discriminated  against  because  he  was 
a  union  man  or  a  non-union  man.  Even  I.  W.  W.  agita- 
tors and  organizers  have  been  treated  with  uniform  toler- 
ance. Presumably,  an  arrogant  or  narrow-minded  fore- 
man or  superintendent  has  cropped  up  here  and  there;  but 
the  writer,  having  a  broad  and  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
companies,  has  no  doubt  of  the  scrupulous  fairness  with 
which  the  open-shop  principle  has  been  followed. 

It  is  generally  accepted  that  Westinghouse  started  the 
Saturday  half-holiday  in  large  works  in  the  United  States, 
having  seen  its  operation  in  England.  Whether  or  not  that 


BUILDS  WILMERDING  295 

is  exactly  true,  he  was  the  pioneer  in  the  Pittsburgh  dis- 
trict. On  June  1,  1881,  he  announced  the  Saturday  half- 
holiday  in  the  Air  Brake  Works,  and  it  was  an  established 
custom  in  all  his  other  plants  as  they  came  along.  To  us 
now,  the  chief  interest  is  that  the  innovation  is  an  exam- 
ple of  the  feeling  of  the  innovator. 

Westinghouse  had  no  gift  for  abstract  speculation,  and 
it  did  not  interest  him.  His  thoughts  on  welfare  were  al- 
ways in  concrete  terms.  A  veteran  officer  of  the  Air  Brake 
Company  writes :  "  Mr.  Westinghouse  said  that  in  his  judg- 
ment one  of  the  most  serious  problems  in  the  development 
of  the  country  along  right  lines  was  the  proper  housing 
of  the  masses  that  were  flocking  to  our  industrial  centers. 
He  intimated  that  he  had  given  the  question  much  thought, 
and,  if  his  affairs  permitted,  would  be  glad  to  attempt  its 
solution  along  business  lines,  and  yet  in  the  spirit  of  the  high- 
est and  most  practical  philanthropy."  In  1889  the  Brake 
Works  were  moved  from  Allegheny  (now  part  of  Pitts- 
burgh) to  a  site  about  fourteen  miles  east  of  the  city,  on  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad,  in  the  Turtle  Creek  Valley.  There 
the  town  of  Wilmerding  was  built  around  the  new  shops. 
It  is  as  distinctly  a  brake  town  as  Crewe  is  a  London  & 
Northwestern  Railway  town,  or  Essen  a  Krupp  town.  The 
company  still  owns  more  than  half  the  houses  after  selling 
many  to  employees  on  monthly  instalments.  It  has  helped 
generously  in  town  matters — in  building  and  supporting 
schools,  churches,  and  parks,  but  it  has  refrained  carefully 
from  attempts  to  influence  town  politics.  Radical  social- 
istic influences  have  sometimes  prevailed,  and  troublesome 
men  have  been  elected  to  office,  but  the  company  has  gone 
serenely  on,  and  let  the  radicals  dig  their  own  graves. 

When  the  plant  went  to  what  became  Wilmerding,  there 
was  but  one  building  on  the  site  of  the  town  to  be.  A 


296  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

building  plan  was  made,  having  in  mind  topography,  water- 
supply,  sanitary  disposal  of  sewage,  and  roads.  Good 
houses  were  built,  and  practically  all  of  those  houses  still 
stand — stanch  and  serviceable.  They  have  gas,  water, 
electricity,  and  baths,  and  a  large  proportion  of  them  have 
lawns  and  gardens.  Barracks  and  monotonous  rows  of 
operatives'  houses  were  not  built.  Many  years  ago  the 
company  established  lawn  and  garden  contests,  with  cash 
prizes  for  lawns,  flower  culture,  vegetable  gardens,  window 
and  porch  boxes,  and  for  the  best-kept  grounds  as  a  whole. 
A  committee  of  five  award  the  prizes.  Three  members  of 
this  committee  are  elected  by  the  competitors,  one  is  the 
company's  gardener,  and  the  fifth  is  a  non-resident  land- 
scape gardener.  Thus  the  little  town  has  become  a  focus 
of  taste  in  a  commonplace  and  even  dreary  region.  Con- 
ditions did  not  lend  themselves  to  such  enterprises  at  any 
other  of  the  American  works,  but  at  East  Pittsburgh  the 
Westinghouse  Electric  and  Manufacturing  Company  is 
pushing  forward  an  excellent  housing  plan,  a  little  out  of 
the  town. 

The  enlightened  employer  of  labor  long  ago  learned  to 
take  good  care  of  the  men  in  the  shops.  That  has  become 
so  customary  in  large  establishments  as  to  be  common- 
place, and  yet  the  means  are  always  interesting.  West- 
inghouse thought  much  of  safety  and  sanitation  in  his  shops. 
Standards  and  methods  have  changed  radically  since  he 
began  to  build,  but  his  shops,  built  in  the  eighties,  are  still 
modern  in  heating,  lighting,  ventilation,  water-supply,  and 
drainage.  As  one  walks  about  in  them,  he  often  thinks 
that  the  men  at  work  are  a  good  deal  better  off  than 
in  their  own  homes.  One  finds  there,  too,  little  emergency 
hospitals,  with  operating  room  and  pharmacy,  all  complete 
and  modern,  and  with  surgeon  and  nurse.  Prompt  treat- 


BENEFIT  ASSOCIATIONS  297 

ment  of  a  wound  often  saves  long  disability  or  the  loss  of 
an  arm,  or  perhaps  a  life.  It  adds  to  the  well-being  of  the 
man  and  to  the  wealth  of  the  nation,  and  the  employer 
knows  that  it  is  money  in  his  own  pocket,  so  his  altruism 
rests  on  a  solid  base. 

Benefit  associations  have  always  existed  in  the  Westing- 
house  shops — that  goes  without  saying.  Ordinarily,  they 
are  financially  quite  independent  of  the  company,  which, 
however,  bears  the  expense  of  administration  and  medical 
examinations.  There,  except  for  moral  support,  the  com- 
pany's part  ends.  Monthly  assessments  of  50  cents  to 
$1.50,  graduated  by  wages,  have,  in  the  case  of  the  Brake 
Company,  built  up  a  surplus  of  over  $86,000  in  seventeen 
years.  Originally,  both  sick  and  accident  benefits  were 
paid  to  members,  but  two  years  before  the  passage  of  the 
Workmen's  Compensation  Act  in  Pennsylvania,  the  Air 
Brake  Company  established  a  Workmen's  Compensation 
Fund  provided  solely  by  the  company,  out  of  which  dis- 
ability arising  through  accident  received  compensation 
upon  a  much  more  liberal  basis  than  that  established  by 
the  act  subsequently  enacted  and,  later,  amended.  Relief 
payments  are  larger,  and  begin  on  the  day  that  the  acci- 
dent occurs.  The  law  requires  no  payment  for  the  first 
ten  days  of  disability.  The  company  pays  all  hospital  and 
surgical  expenses;  the  law  sets  a  maximum  limit,  beyond 
which  the  employer  is  not  liable.  This  fund  is  supported 
entirely  by  the  company,  without  cost  to  the  workmen. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  cheapest  and  best  way  to  take  care 
of  factory  injuries  is  to  prevent  them.  The  Westinghouse 
Companies  have  been  diligent  and  enterprising  in  develop- 
ing the  art  of  mill  safety,  and,  in  this,  the  old  Air  Brake 
Company  has  been  a  leader.  The  result  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  now,  with  a  personnel  of  approximately  5000 


298  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

employees,  serious  accidents  are  almost  unknown.  Safety 
matters  are  under  a  chief  inspector  and  a  committee  of  eight 
employees,  with,  also,  the  plant  fire  chief.  Each  committee- 
man  has  his  own  territory,  but  at  irregular  intervals  he 
invades  the  territory  of  other  committeemen.  This  plan 
of  cross-inspection  brings  to  light  risks  that  an  eye  grown 
accustomed  to  them  might  not  see.  The  committeemen 
are  concerned  with  safety,  sanitation,  and  comfort.  They 
have  regular  weekly  meetings,  and  get  extra  pay.  The 
chief  inspector  has  authority  to  act  immediately  in  an  emer- 
gency. It  is  not  suggested  here  that  such  things  are 
peculiar  to  the  Air  Brake  Company  or  to  the  Westing- 
house  group.  They  have  become  commonplace  with  all 
enlightened  employers  of  labor.  Any  one  who  has  been 
in  touch  for  many  years  with  the  great  industrial  corpora- 
tions knows  that  in  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  they  have 
had  well  in  mind  the  humanitarian  and  economic  bearings 
of  safety. 

The  most  comprehensive  and  beneficent  relief  institu- 
tion of  the  Brake  Company  is  the  pension  system,  estab- 
lished in  1906,  eight  years  before  the  death  of  Westing- 
house.  The  employee  pays  no  premium;  service  alone 
entitles  him  to  a  pension.  He  is  retired  at  seventy,  and  may 
be  retired  at  sixty-five,  in  certain  circumstances.  After 
retirement  he  is  pensioned.  The  pension  is  continued  to  his 
dependents  after  his  death.  Further,  and  of  much  greater 
import,  if  any  employee,  after  having  been  a  member  of  the 
relief  department  for  two  years,  dies  before  reaching  the  age 
of  retirement,  and  while  still  in  active  service,  his  depen- 
dents are  pensioned.  The  scheme  was  worked  out  with 
the  help  of  an  eminent  actuary,  and  provision  has  been 
made  for  the  payment  of  all  pension  obligations,  even  if 
the  Brake  Company  should  become  insolvent  or  go  out  of 


A  PENSION  SYSTEM  299 

business.  A  plan  so  liberal  and  so  unusual  could  only  be 
put  in  force  by  a  prosperous  company. 

This  very  excellent  pension  system  did  not  originate 
with  Westinghouse,  but  was  worked  out  with  his  active 
and  indispensable  support.  For  its  origin  and  develop- 
ment, Mr.  John  F.  Miller,  then  Secretary  of  the  Company, 
and  later  its  President,  is  more  responsible  than  any  one 
man,  and  its  establishment  simply  carries  forward  the 
Westinghouse  spirit,  which  is  the  large  thing  for  us  to  have 
in  mind  now. 

About  the  time  of  the  organization  of  the  pension  sys- 
tem in  the  Brake  Company,  the  Union  Switch  and  Signal 
Company  put  in  force  a  plan  for  the  sale  of  its  stock  to  em- 
ployees. This  was  successful  and  popular  amongst  the 
men,  and  had  excellent  results  in  at  least  two  ways.  The 
men  who  became  stockholders  took  a  new  attitude  toward 
the  company,  and  the  habit  of  saving  spread  and  grew. 
This  was  soon  seen  in  the  neighboring  savings-banks.  This, 
again,  like  the  pension  system,  could  only  be  done  safely 
by  a  prosperous  company.  In  later  years,  the  Westing- 
house  Electric  and  Manufacturing  Company  introduced  a 
comprehensive  and  liberal  plan  of  group  insurance. 

In  1907  a  "Welfare  Building"  was  put  up  by  the  Brake 
Company  at  Wilmerding,  and,  about  the  same  time,  a  small 
but  adequate  building  was  erected  near  by,  for  women. 
The  Welfare  Building  is  admirably  complete,  with  audi- 
torium, gymnasium,  swimming  pool,  classrooms,  and  read- 
ing rooms.  The  operation  of  the  building  was  handed  over 
to  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  and  the  Young 
Women's  Christian  Association  took  the  management  of 
the  women's  building.  Thus  the  buildings  became  of  gen- 
eral use  to  the  people  of  the  valley.  One  result  is  that  the 
Wilmerding  Y.  M.  C.  A.  has  become  the  second  in  size  in 


300  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

Pennsylvania — larger  than  the  Pittsburgh  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
Here,  general  classes  are  carried  on  in  a  variety  of  subjects, 
and  lectures  are  given  by  specialists  from  all  over  the  coun- 
try. Besides  these,  there  are  technical  classes  for  the  ap- 
prentices in  the  shops.  The  boys  put  in  eight  hours  a  week 
for  nine  months  in  the  year.  They  are  paid  their  hourly 
shop  rate  while  attending  classes.  Many  of  the  graduates 
from  these  classes  now  hold  high  executive  positions.  A 
similar  but  much  larger  school  has  long  been  carried  on 
by  the  Electric  Company — the  Casino  Night  School.  Very 
much  of  the  same  sort  of  work,  educational  and  social,  is 
done  for  the  girls  and  young  women  of  the  works  and  the 
neighborhood. 

PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS 

Westinghouse  had  a  considerable  advantage  over  his 
fellow  mortals  in  his  physical  stature.  He  had  a  greater 
advantage  in  his  mental  stature.  Both  were  the  gift  of  the 
gods,  and,  if  one  is  to  do  eminent  things,  he  must  start  with 
the  favor  of  the  gods.  We  often  hear  of  the  "masters  of 
fate."  Alfred  the  Great  and  Julius  Caesar  are  said  to  have 
been  epileptics  (which  we  may  doubt),  and  Alexander  Pope 
is  known  to  have  been  a  crooked  and  fragile  invalid;  but 
in  all  such  cases  we  find  uncommon  energy  of  will  and 
power  of  mind.  It  is  a  pretty  safe  general  proposition  that 
success  is  a  constitutional  trait,  and  "for  performances  of 
great  mark,  it  needs  extraordinary  health."  This  West- 
inghouse had  in  a  splendid  body,  and  in  that  body  was 
housed  a  powerful  mind  which  worked  swiftly,  and  without 
heat  or  friction.  He  stood  well  over  six  feet  and  was 
strongly  built.  When  he  raised  his  great  right  hand,  palm 
toward  you  and  fingers  a  little  spread,  and  said  in  a  gentle 
voice  and  with  a  hint  of  a  smile,  "But  you  don't  under- 


DIGNITY  AND  MANNERS  301 

stand,"  it  was  quite  plain  to  the  dullest  mind  that  the 
sooner  he  understood  the  better  for  him. 

His  commanding  presence  was  not  merely  a  matter  of 
size  and  proportion;  he  had  the  subtle  quality  of  distinc- 
tion. If  he  sat  in  a  box  at  the  opera  or  walked  through  a 
crowded  waiting-room,  the  stranger  would  think:  "Who  is 
that  distinguished  man?"  As  the  years  went  on,  and  his 
face  was  softened  by  gray  hair  and  ennobled  by  the  habit 
of  responsibility  and  power,  the  air  of  distinction  grew. 

He  had  dignity  which  protected  him  from  familiarity, 
but  he  was  simple,  unaffected,  and  instinctively  cordial  in 
his  manner — what  we  like  to  call  democratic,  but  might 
better  call  aristocratic.  His  manners  and  his  language 
were  exactly  the  same  with  princes  and  with  machinists, 
and  with  his  old  negro  butler,  which  seems  to  be  the  height 
of  good  breeding.  He  respected  the  workman  and  the 
prince,  the  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  and  his  butler, 
just  as  he  respected  himself,  and  on  that  basis  rested  his 
intercourse  with  his  fellow  men.  Along  with  this  basic  self- 
respect  and  respect  for  others,  went  a  natural  kindness.  It 
hurt  him  to  hurt  the  feelings  of  another.  This  was  the 
foundation  of  his  unfailing  courtesy.  Being  human,  he  was 
sometimes  impatient,  but  he  remembered  and  regretted  im- 
patient speeches  that  a  smaller  man  would  not  have  thought 
twice  about.  His  self-control  was  such  that  his  closest  as- 
sociates find  it  hard  to  recall  any  show  of  anger,  but  he  did 
often  disarm  his  antagonist  by  the  genial  smile  which  re- 
flected the  kindness  of  his  heart. 

In  the  few  hours  of  ease  which  he  gave  himself  in  a  lif e 
of  prodigious  toil,  he  was  a  charming  companion,  genial, 
courteous,  and  sympathetic.  Unfortunately  for  his  friends, 
and  unfortunately  for  the  world,  he  did  not  give  himself 
enough  hours  of  ease.  His  life  long,  Westinghouse  was  tern- 


302  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

perate  in  everything  but  work.  He  never  smoked.  Until 
middle  life  he  hardly  knew  the  taste  of  wine  or  spirits.  In 
later  years  he  took  a  glass  or  two  of  wine  with  his  dinner, 
and  perhaps  a  glass  of  brandy  or  liqueur  with  his  coffee 
after  dinner,  but  that  was  all.  His  table  was  bountiful 
and  handsome  as  became  a  man  of  wealth  and  position, 
but  he  chose  simple  food  and  ate  moderately. 

Hospitality  was  his  greatest  diversion,  and  in  this  he 
was  ably  assisted  by  Mrs.  Westinghouse.  It  was  their  nor- 
mal life  to  have  several  guests  in  the  house,  and  to  have  a 
dinner-party  every  night.  The  varied  company  included 
distinguished  men  of  many  lands.  One  recalls  having  met 
there,  not  merely  as  dinner  guests,  but  as  house  guests, 
Bonar  Law,  Baron  Takahira,  Earl  Grey,  an  eminent  Rus- 
sian general,  and  Lord  Kelvin,  to  say  nothing  of  Americans 
of  the  highest  position.  This  may  be  taken  literally,  for 
at  least  one  President  of  the  United  States  was  his  guest 
as  far  as  affairs  and  conventionalities  permitted.  For  many 
years  such  people  frequented  his  home,  drawn  partly  by 
matters  of  specific  business  or  scientific  interest  and  partly 
by  the  combination  of  dignified  thought,  broad  outlook, 
wise  judgment,  brilliant  speculation,  and  gracious  manner 
which  they,  found  there. 

It  is  no  very  uncommon  thing  to  see  American  country 
boys  from  the  farms  and  the  small  shops  rise  to  high  posi- 
tions and  become  the  companions  and  friends  of  the  great 
of  the  earth.  We  become  familiar  with  such  careers  in  the 
land  of  opportunity.  It  has  been  said  that  "there  is  no 
magician  like  the  enlightened  human  will,"  and  we  might 
add,  "when  it  works  in  the  mental  and  moral  stimulus  of 
freedom."  So  we  like  to  think  of  Westinghouse  as  the  nor- 
mal result  of  our  institutions. 

Westinghouse  did  not  work  for  wealth.  Money  to  him 
was  merely  stored  energy,  to  be  used  to  extend  industry 


A  MOTIVE  IN  LIFE  303 

and  to  do  good.  He  recognized  the  duty  of  producing 
proper  returns  to  those  who  invested  in  his  enterprises, 
but  his  own  dividends  were  constantly  reinvested  in  the 
further  development  of  those  enterprises.  He  might  have 
retired  in  middle  life  a  comfortably  rich  man,  but  he  chose 
to  spend  his  life  in  gigantic  toil.  He  enjoyed  power;  but 
that  was  only  an  incident  in  his  career,  not  an  end.  Like 
all  noble  minds,  he  enjoyed  the  approbation  of  the  discrimi- 
nating, and  he  was  always  solicitous  that  no  reproach 
should  attach  to  the  name  Westinghouse;  but  he  did  not 
work  for  glory.  He  had  honorary  degrees,  but  no  one  ever 
heard  him  called  doctor;  he  had  decorations,  but  no  one 
ever  knew  it  from  him,  and  his  medals  were  not  displayed 
in  his  houses. 

One  underlying  motive  actuating  his  life  was  perhaps 
best  expressed  to  an  intimate  friend  while  subject  to  the 
solemn  influence  of  a  walk  through  Arlington  Cemetery, 
where  now  his  body  rests  beside  that  of  Mrs.  Westinghouse. 
The  friend,  solicitous  as  to  the  health  of  Westinghouse, 
urged  him  to  rest  from  the  work  which  threatened  to  break 
down  even  his  robust  constitution,  adding  that  he  had  al- 
ready accomplished  vastly  more  than  other  men  and  pos- 
sessed all  the  wealth  that  he  could  require.  In  a  thought- 
ful manner  Westinghouse  replied:  "No,  I  do  not  feel  that 
it  would  be  right  for  me  to  stop  now;  I  feel  that  I  have 
been  given  certain  powers  to  create  and  develop  enter- 
prises in  which  other  men  can  find  useful  and  profitable 
employment,  and  so  long  as  I  am  able,  it  is  my  duty  to 
continue  to  exercise  those  powers."  The  great  spirit  within 
him  could  tolerate  no  ease  but  drove  him  forward  remorse- 
lessly. Morley  says  of  Cromwell's  wish  to  withdraw  from 
public  life:  "The  inspiring  daimon  of  the  mind  pre- 
vented it." 

We  have  seen  in  technical  detail,  the  things  that  George 


304  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

Westinghouse  did  as  an  engineer  and  an  inventor.  We 
have  seen  something  of  his  doings  in  organization,  adminis- 
tration, finance,  and  trade.  We  have  considered  his  rela- 
tions to  those  who  worked  with  him  and  we  have  looked 
at  him  physically  and  socially.  Let  us  now  try  to  estimate 
some  of  the  qualities  of  mind  and  soul  which  enabled  him 
to  do  what  he  did.  Emerson  said,  "there  is  not  yet  any 
inventory  of  a  man's  faculties."  Far  be  it  from  us  to  try 
to  inventory  George  Westinghouse,  but  we  may  pick  out 
a  trait  here  and  there. 

Perhaps  his  most  important  faculty  was  imagination. 
This  was  of  the  creative  rank,  like  that  of  the  empire 
builders,  like,  for  instance,  Clive  and  Cecil  Rhodes,  or  like 
that  of  great  poets  and  painters.  This  is  not  to  make  com- 
parison in  degree,  but  in  kind.  He  was  not  introspective. 
He  bothered  himself  little  about  his  own  gifts,  and  he  was 
perhaps  unconsciousness  of  the  power  and  quality  of  his 
own  imagination.  Talking  one  evening,  about  young  men 
to  hire  and  train,  he  said:  "Get  boys  with  physique  and 
memory,  and  you  can  make  men  of  them."  The  reply 
was,  that  he  had  overlooked  the  most  important  quality. 
"What's  that?"  asked  Westinghouse.  "Imagination," 
said  his  friend.  For  some  minutes  he  did  not  answer,  and 
when  he  did,  it  seemed  as  if  this  was  an  element  that  he 
had  not  thought  much  about.  Some  one  said  that  Daniel 
Webster  was  a  steam  engine  in  breeches.  George  West- 
inghouse was  an  imagination  in  breeches,  walking  about 
over  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  doing  things  that  changed 
the  face  of  society,  just  as  birds  sing.  But  although  not 
a  bit  introspective  he  was  not  unconscious  of  the  meaning 
of  his  work.  He  saw  in  a  large  way  the  consequences  of 
his  inventions  and  activities.  He  knew  perfectly  well  that 
he  was  building  for  nations  and  not  for  parishes.  It  was 


FORTITUDE  AND  AUDACITY  305 

often  hard  for  his  subordinates  and  associates  to  follow 
him  in  his  estimate  of  consequences,  and  in  detail  he  was 
often  mistaken,  but  in  the  broad  results  his  vision  and  his 
faith  were  splendidly  justified. 

Next  in  rank  we  may  put  fortitude,  which  is  courage  in 
adversity,  and  which  is  one  of  the  noblest  attributes  of 
man.  There  were  black  moments  in  the  life  of  Westing- 
house.  There  were  times  when  his  bravest  associates 
thought  that  his  enterprise  must  go  on  the  rocks;  but  his 
serene  courage  was  never  dismayed.  In  his  saddest  re- 
verses, the  splendid  spirit  flamed  on,  unquenched. 

Closely  allied  with  fortitude  is  audacity,  a  quality  less 
noble,  but  useful  in  execution.  Lord  Fisher  said  of  Nel- 
son: "The  key-notes  of  his  being  were  imagination,  au- 
dacity, tenderness."  We  cannot  think  of  Westinghouse 
saying,  "kiss  me,  Hardy,"  as  he  lay  dying.  He  had  ten- 
derness, as  we  constantly  saw,  but  it  was  shy  and  was  never 
expressed  in  words.  He  had  imagination,  as  is  obvious  to 
the  world.  His  audacity  was  Nelsonian.  He  would  have 
"Copenhagened"  the  Danish  fleet,  or  would  have  engaged 
the  French  fleet  at  the  battle  of  the  Nile,  just  as  gaily  as 
Nelson  did — and,  in  the  Nelson  philosophy,  "the  boldest 
means  are  the  safest."  An  audacious  youngster  of  twenty- 
seven,  Westinghouse  invaded  England  with  his  still  unde- 
veloped brake.  Fortitude  and  audacity  won  a  great  victory 
for  the  brake,  after  the  Burlington  trials.  His  Chicago 
World's  Fair  enterprise  was  pure  audacity,  and  it  was  au- 
dacious to  fight  the  scientific  world  at  Niagara. 

Westinghouse's  persistence  was  proverbial  amongst  those 
who  were  near  him  his  life  long.  Nothing  but  fate  could 
tear  him  loose  from  his  purpose.  This  was  shown  some- 
what amusingly  in  an  affair  to  be  described  shortly,  when 
we  take  up  his  education.  It  will  be  seen  that  for  thirteen 


306  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

years  he  persisted  in  an  engineering  fallacy  against  high 
authority.  Many  times  the  quality  was  costly  in  time  and 
money,  but  a  ledger  account  of  his  doings  would  show  an 
immense  balance  to  the  good. 

When  Huxley  first  sailed  into  the  harbor  of  New  York, 
he  was  attracted  by  the  tugs  as  they  tore  fiercely  up  and 
down  and  across  the  bay.  He  looked  long  at  them  and 
finally  said:  "If  I  were  not  a  man,  I  think  I  should  like 
to  be  a  tug."  He  saw  energy  and  power  combined  and 
compressed.  Many  of  us  have  been  put  to  inconvenience 
by  Westinghouse's  remorseless  energy.  Unlike  the  tug,  it 
did  not  seem  restless.  It  went  smoothly  on,  without  efff ort, 
but  as  inevitable  as  the  flowing  of  a  river. 

In  the  first  chapter  it  is  told  that  in  a  certain  eleven 
years,  Westinghouse  took  out  134  patents,  started  six  im- 
portant companies  which  still  exist,  took  the  air  brake 
through  its  one  great  crisis,  and,  most  important  of  all, 
started  the  alternating  current  revolution  in  industrial  his- 
tory. How  could  mortal  man  do  so  much?  We  have  told 
of  his  strong  body  and  perfect  health,  of  his  powerful  mind 
which  worked  swiftly,  and  without  heat  or  friction,  and 
his  imagination,  persistence,  and  energy.  But  his  gift  of 
concentration  has  not  been  mentioned.  He  could  close  his 
mind  suddenly  and  completely.  He  took  a  subject  into  a 
water-tight  compartment,  and  there  he  and  the  subject 
were  alone  five  minutes  or  five  hours,  until  he  was  ready 
for  another  subject.  He  could  handle  simultaneously  and 
without  confusion  or  waste  of  energy  a  dozen  companies 
in  two  hemispheres.  So,  when  financial  waters  were  rolling 
deep,  he  could  find  rest  in  a  new  kind  of  blading  for  a  tur- 
bine, and  another  sort  of  rest  in  a  new  friction  draft  gear. 
Perhaps  things  got  jumbled  in  his  dreams,  but  they  were 
kept  in  their  own  places  when  he  was  awake;  and,  as 


CONCENTRATION  AND  MEMORY  307 

he  had  perfect  digestion,  it  is  unlikely  that  he  dreamt 
much. 

It  is  a  commonplace  that  concentration  is  a  necessary 
element  in  effective  mental  work,  and  all  methodical  men 
try  to  discipline  their  minds  to  concentrate;  but  Westing- 
house  never  consciously  disciplined  any  of  his  faculties, 
for  he  was  the  least  introspective  of  men.  Nor  did  he  ever 
have  the  discipline  of  systematic  education,  of  which  more 
will  be  said  presently.  Along  with  his  unusual  concentra- 
tion went  unusual  memory,  which  is  a  function  of  concen- 
tration— a  result.  Upon  the  intensity  and  singleness  of 
interest  must  depend  the  depth  of  the  impression  made 
on  the  brain  cells,  and  that  is  memory.  It  was  a  proverb 
amongst  Westinghouse  men  that  you  must  not  tell  the 
"  old  man  "  anything  that  you  did  not  wish  him  to  remember 
ten  years  from  now.  Files,  and  records,  and  memoranda 
were  little  part  of  the  machinery  of  his  life.  He  never 
carried  a  note-book  or  a  pencil.  Things  stowed  themselves 
automatically  in  his  mind,  and  they  came  out  when  they 
were  wanted.  The  power  of  association — a  great  help  to 
memory — was  strong  with  him.  Perhaps  Smith,  whom  he 
had  not  seen  for  a  year,  came  in.  "  Good-morning,  Smith ! 
Has  your  wife  got  quite  well?  You  were  wrong  about  the 
efficiency  of  that  gear.  It  is  10  per  cent  better  than  you 
thought,"  and  Smith,  who  had  forgotten  that  his  wife  was 
indisposed  a  year  ago  and  had  forgotten  what  he  thought 
about  the  gear,  would  be  astonished  and  flattered. 

The  prodigious  output  that  has  just  been  mentioned, 
was  made  easier  by  quick  and  versatile  resourcefulness. 
Mr.  Albert  Kapteyn  of  Holland,  who  had  important  places 
in  the  air-brake  organization  for  many  years,  writes: 

It  was  always  a  treat  to  see  him  at  work  to  solve  a 
problem  in  the  workshop,  drawing  office,  at  home,  or  any- 


308  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

where  else.  One  could  almost  see  the  wheels  go  round  in 
his  brain.  His  resourcefulness  was  something  marvellous. 
When  one  solution  did  not  satisfy  him,  he  had  instantly 
several  others  ready  at  hand,  as  if  his  brain  was  a  store- 
house of  original  ideas  and  as  if  he  had  only  to  take  them  out 
as  wanted.  I  remember  an  important  interview  we  had  with 
some  chief  engineers  of  the  French  railways,  who  had  a 
favorable  opinion  of  his  brake,  but  they  pretended  that  they 
wanted  several  additional  things.  This  one  wanted  the 
brake  to  do  this,  the  other,  something  else,  and  I  had  a 
strong  impression  that  they  wanted  to  test  his  capacities 
as  an  inventor,  or  perhaps  to  embarrass  him.  Instead  of 
avoiding  them,  Mr.  Westinghouse  rather  enjoyed  this 
game,  and  said  to  them:  "Gentlemen,  I  really  don't  think 
that  you  can  want  such  things  in  daily  use,  but  if  you  are 
interested  how  such  questions  could  be  solved,  let  me  show 
you!"  And  he  proceeded  then  to  give  most  original  and 
practical  solutions  of  all  they  had  asked,  which  made  them 
exclaim:  "This  is  a  most  marvellous  man !  He  will  readily 
invent  anything  you  like!"  He  always  realized  so  com- 
pletely the  interrelation  of  cause  and  effect  that  it  seemed 
as  if,  to  him,  the  apparatus  was  made  of  glass,  and  he 
worked  with  the  greatest  ease,  as  if  playing. 

It  should  not  be  overlooked  that  this  resourcefulness 
was  not  limited  to  mechanical  matters.  It  was  shown, 
time  and  again,  in  company  organization,  in  trading  and 
in  finance.  Andrew  Carnegie,  who  was  a  pretty  good  judge 
of  men,  said:  "George  Westinghouse  is  a  genius  who  can't 
be  downed." 

Westinghouse  attacked  with  energy  and  audacity,  and 
he  held  on  with  tenacity  and  fortitude,  and  he  was  com- 
pletely self-reliant.  People  who  did  not  know  him  very 
well  are  apt  to  think  of  him  as  imperious  and  self-sufficient. 
Nothing  could  be  further  from  the  fact.  He  was  self- 
reliant,  not  self-sufficient.  Morley  says  that  "Cromwell 


HOW  HE  CONSULTED  309 

had  that  mark  of  greatness  in  a  ruler  that  he  was  well 
served.  No  prince  had  ever  abler  or  more  faithful  agents. 
.  .  .  Nobody  knew  better  the  value  of  consultation." 
This  mark  of  greatness  Westinghouse  had  too,  in  kind; 
we  need  not  try  to  estimate  the  degree.  One  is  tempted 
to  follow  further  the  likenesses  of  these  two  iron  men — so 
dominant  and  compelling;  so  tender,  loving,  and  loyal,  so 
wise  and  modest — but  such  a  comparison  might  seem  ex- 
travagant. We  may  be  content  to  see  that  "one  star  dif- 
fereth  from  another  star  in  glory,"  and  admire  both  stars. 
The  point  in  mind  now  is,  that  Westinghouse,  like  Crom- 
well, knew  the  value  of  consultation,  from  which  flowed 
the  fact  that  he  was  well  served.  He  communicated  to  his 
staff  the  sacred  fire.  They  came  to  have  a  respect  for  him. 
They  served  him  not  only  as  a  duty,  but  with  devotion 
and  esteem.  It  is  true  that  the  other  man  did  not  always 
know  that  he  was  being  consulted.  Westinghouse  never 
revealed  his  whole  mind — not  from  craft,  but  partly  from 
inborn  reticence,  partly  from  incurable  shyness,  partly 
because  his  mental  process  was  so  swift  that  the  man  who 
was  being  talked  to,  or  consulted,  could  not  keep  up.  One 
was  often  reminded  of  something  Huxley  said  about  Dar- 
win: "Exposition  is  not  his  forte  (and  his  English  is  some- 
times wonderful).  But  there  is  a  marvellous  dumb  sagacity 
about  him.,  like  that  of  a  sort  of  miraculous  dog,  and  he 
gets  to  the  truth  by  ways  that  are  dark" — dark  to  the 
slower  mind.  Those  of  us  who  have  read  a  little  mathemat- 
ics have  often  met  the  phrase,  "whence  it  follows,"  a 
dozen  intermediate  steps  being  omitted;  and  to  us  it  did 
not  follow  at  all.  Such  situations  often  faced  the  man 
who  was  "consulted"  by  George  Westinghouse.  He  some- 
times rejected  advice  and  opinion  to  his  own  serious 
loss,  as  the  greatest  men  have  done — being  human.  Na- 


310  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

poleon's  ruinous  mistake,  Russia,  was  made 'against  the 
remonstrances  of  the  men  whom  he  consulted.  In  brief, 
Westinghouse  sought  freely  and  respectfully  the  opinion 
of  those  about  him.  He  put  that  opinion  through  the  mill 
of  his  mind,  and  made  his  own  decisions.  He  had  one  of 
the  attributes  of  genius — the  capacity  to  withdraw  into 
the  loneliness  of  his  own  soul,  and  there  to  conceive  and 
meditate,  and  then  to  act.  After  all,  can  really  great  things 
be  done  in  any  other  way  ?  Whether  the  result  is  good  or 
bad,  must  depend  on  the  qualities  of  the  soul.  He  had  this 
attribute  of  genius  and  many  others.  It  is  easy  to  say  that 
a  man  is  a  genius.  The  term  is  so  vague  that  it  fits  almost 
any  large  and  unusual  combination  of  endowments.  We 
have  tried  to  show  that  Westinghouse  was  a  good  deal  more 
than  a  genius.  He  was  a  man  of  balanced  character,  which 
a  genius  may  or  may  not  be.  He  had  high  and  simple 
standards  to  which  he  was  consistent.  He  was  strong  and 
he  was  gentle.  He  was  acute  and  he  was  sincere.  Carnegie 
was  quite  safe  in  saying  that  he  was  a  genius  and  Kelvin 
was  quite  right  in  saying  that  he  was  great  in  character. 

EDUCATION 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Westinghouse  enlisted  before 
he  was  seventeen,  was  mustered  out  at  the  end  of  the  Civil 
War,  still  under  nineteen,  and  that  he  went  to  college 
three  months,  and  then  went  back  to  the  machine  shop. 
There  his  formal  education  ended.  All  of  his  schooling  after 
he  was  thirteen  was  about  a  year  and  a  half.  His  life  gave 
him  an  ample  education  in  the  Henry  Adams  sense,  but  of 
systematic  and  disciplined  education  he  had  little;  but  from 
his  speech  and  writing  no  one  would  have  suspected  that 
he  was  not  university  bred.  This  is  evidence  not  only  of 
his  own  taste,  but  of  the  sound  English  that  he  heard  in 


EDUCATION  AND  GREATNESS  311 

the  home  of  his  childhood — the  Bible  English  brought  over 
by  the  colonists  and  still  spoken  by  country  folks  in  the  old 
colonies. 

Some  of  us  who  knew  Westinghouse  well,  have  often 
speculated  whether  or  not  he  would  have  been  a  greater 
man  if  he  had  had  a  formal  and  conventional  education. 
Gibbon  says  in  one  of  those  sweeping  generalizations  in 
which  he  delights:  "The  power  of  instruction  is  seldom  of 
much  efficacy  except  in  those  happy  dispositions  where 
it  is  almost  superfluous."  Westinghouse  was  one  of  those 
"happy  dispositions."  The  education  of  the  schools  seemed 
"almost  superfluous."  With  the  power  and  quality  of  his 
mind  he  could  easily  have  been  eminent  in  physics  and 
mathematics.  Thorough  training  in  those  branches  of 
knowledge  would  have  saved  him  time,  money,  and  energy. 
It  was  a  tedious  and  costly  process  to  learn  the  hard  and 
fast  limits  of  those  records  of  experience  which,  for  con- 
venience, men  call  laws  of  nature,  by  actual  demonstration 
in  the  metal;  but  without  the  knowledge  acquired  by  other 
men  and  stored  in  books,  it  was  a  necessary  process.  The 
man  who  could  understand  and  intelligently  discuss  the 
deep  and  subtle  speculations  of  Lord  Kelvin  was  not  ig- 
norant of  the  laws  of  nature,  and  Westinghouse  had  quick, 
just,  and  deep  perception  of  the  relations  and  action  of  nat- 
ural forces.  He  did  things  that  the  text-books  said  were 
against  the  laws  of  nature,  and,  in  course  of  time,  the  text 
writers  caught  up  with  him.  On  the  other  hand,  he  did 
things  that  the  text-books  said  were  against  the  laws  of 
nature,  that  his  engineers  protested  against,  that  cost  time 
and  money,  and  that  ended  on  the  scrap  heap,  that  great 
institution  of  which  Mr.  Don  J.  Whittemore,  Past  Presi- 
dent, Am.  Soc.  C.  E.,  once  said:  "The  scrap  heap — that 
inarticulate  witness  of  our  blunders,  and  the  sepulchre  of 


312  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

our  blasted  hopes;  the  best,  but  most  humiliating,  legacy 
we  are  forced  to  leave  to  our  successors,  has  always,  to  me, 
been  brimful  of  instruction."  Few  men  have  made  so 
copious  and  so  instructive  contributions  to  the  scrap  heap 
as  Westinghouse.  His  scrap  heap  is  there,  visible  to  man- 
kind, and  when  one  is  in  a  pedantic  mood,  he  may  incline 
to  think  that  it  would  be  smaller  if  Westinghouse  had 
possessed  more  of  the  stored  learning  of  the  ages,  or  had 
felt  more  respect  for  authority.  That  is  quite  possible, 
although  even  a  pedant  is  not  always  safe  from  mistakes. 
We  have  Carlyle's  word  that  Robespierre  was  a  man  of 
strict,  painful  mind;  that  he  was  a  logic  formula,  but  he 
made  a  horrible  scrap  heap  and  eventually  scrapped  his 
own  life. 

The  deeper  we  dig  into  Westinghouse's  scrap  heap,  and 
the  more  we  know  of  the  circumstances  of  its  creation,  the 
clearer  it  appears  that  it  was  mostly  the  result  of  courage. 
He  had  the  courage  of  the  habit  of  success,  and  he  took 
risks,  well  knowing  that  they  were  risks,  confident  in  the 
insight,  resourcefulness,  and  persistence  that  had  often  car- 
ried him  through.  A  considerable  exploration  of  that  scrap 
heap  reveals  the  fact  that  it  grew  largely  from  experiments 
in  which  the  text-books  would  have  been  of  no  help  at  all, 
and  the  outcome  of  which  no  professor  of  physics  could 
have  known  by  the  light  of  pure  reason.  Professor  Bart- 
lett  said:  "Mechanics,  in  the  hands  of  those  gifted  with 
the  priceless  boon  of  a  copious  mathematics,  is  a  key  to 
external  nature."  Granted,  but  it  may  be  doubted  if  a 
committee  made  up  of  Archimedes,  Newton,  Laplace,  Kel- 
vin, Rankine,  and  Bartlett,  could  have  reasoned  out  the 
best  size  for  the  ports  of  a  brake  valve.  Westinghouse 
spent  many  thousand  dollars,  and  sent  much  good  gray 
iron  back  to  the  cupola  to  find  that  out,  and  he  knew  all 
the  time  that  he  would  find  it  out. 


THE  LAWS  OF  FRICTION  313 

Early  in  his  career  Westinghouse  had  an  encounter  with 
a  certain  law  of  nature  which  may  have  had  something  to 
do  with  the  hardihood  of  his  usual  attitude  toward  those 
laws.  In  1878-1879,  the  Galton-Westinghouse  Brake  Tests 
were  carried  out  in  England.  They  are  famous,  and  have 
profoundly  affected  the  air-brake  art.  They  are  described 
at  some  length  elsewhere  in  this  book.  One  important  dis- 
covery made  by  Westinghouse  and  Captain  (later,  Sir 
Douglas)  Galton  was  that,  under  the  conditions  of  their  ex- 
periments, the  coefficient  of  friction  rises  as  the  relative 
speed  of  motion  of  two  surfaces  in  contact  falls.  But  in 
1781,  Coulomb  laid  down  certain  laws  of  friction  which  were 
confirmed  by  Morin  in  1830-1834,  and  became  laws  of 
nature.  One  of  these  laws  is  that  "friction  is  independent 
of  the  velocity  with  which  the  surfaces  slide  one  upon  the 
other."  The  Galton-Westinghouse  tests  showed  that  fric- 
tion varies  inversely  as  the  velocity.  They  were  fully  and 
admirably  described  in  three  papers  read  before  the  Institu- 
tion of  Mechanical  Engineers  (British)  in  1878  and  1879. 
Nevertheless,  recent  text-books  on  physics  say  that  "fric- 
tion seems  independent  of  velocity,"  and  that  "friction  is 
independent  of  the  rate  of  motion."  The  truth  seems  to  be 
that  the  Morin  "law"  still  holds  for  the  range  of  his  ex- 
perimentation and  that  the  Galton-Westinghouse  "law" 
holds  for  the  pressures  and  speeds  of  their  experiments, 
and  that  the  custodians  of  the  laws  of  nature  should  use 
due  diligence. 

Finally,  while  we  may  feel  sure  that  Westinghouse  would 
not  have  been  hampered  by  awe  of  formulae  or  respect  for 
authority,  the  question  with  which  we  started,  as  to  the 
relation  of  education  to  greatness,  in  his  case,  remains  open 
as  an  interesting  topic  for  debate. 

In  reviewing  Mr.  Leupp's  "Biography  of  Westinghouse," 
one  of  the  great  engineering  journals  of  England  said: 


314  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

"Westinghouse  was  not  a  trained  engineer  .  .  .  apart  from 
his  air  brake,  he  is  more  rightly  regarded  as  a  great  manu- 
facturer than  as  a  great  inventor  or  a  great  engineer."  Pre- 
sumably that  reviewer  would  not  call  Archimedes  a  trained 
engineer,  or  Leonardo  da  Vinci  or  Watt  or  Stephenson. 
They  never  heard  of  Sadi  Carnot's  "Motive  Power  of 
Heat,"  or  of  Rankine's  "Civil  Engineering"  or  Bartlett's 
"Analytical  Mechanics."  They  did  not  go  to  the  Ponts  et 
Chausees,  or  the  "Boston  Tech,"  or  pay  a  thousand 
guineas  to  sit  five  years  in  the  office  of  an  eminent  engineer 
in  Westminster.  But  they  contrived  to  do  famous  things 
in  engineering,  not  to  say  immortal  things.  There  seem  to 
be  several  kinds  of  training. 

Westinghouse  had  one  encounter  with  the  laws  of  nature 
which  illustrates  well  some  of  the  things  that  happened  to 
him  for  lack  of  training  in  theory,  and  the  laws  won.  It 
illustrates,  too,  his  persistence.  It  is  known  only  to  a  small 
group  of  engineers.  In  reading  Lord  Kelvin's  philosophical 
and  mathematical  papers,  he  came  upon  one  written  in 
1852,  which  took  hold  of  his  imagination.  This  was  upon 
"The  Economy  of  Heating  and  Cooling  Buildings  by 
Means  of  Currents  of  Air."  Lord  Kelvin  (then  Professor 
William  Thomson)  showed  that  by  the  extraction  of  heat 
from  the  atmosphere  by  suitable  apparatus,  requiring  0.288 
horsepower  to  drive  it,  thirty-five  times  as  much  air  could 
be  raised  thirty  degrees  fahr.  in  temperature  as  could  be 
raised  to  the  same  degree  by  the  direct  expenditure  of  the 
heat  equivalent  of  the  0.288  horsepower  of  energy.  That 
is,  if  the  entire  heat  energy  of  one  pound  of  coal  were  con- 
verted into  mechanical  energy  in  a  perfect  thermodynamic 
engine,  that  would,  by  extracting  heat  from  surrounding 
objects  (the  atmosphere),  raise  as  much  air  thirty  degrees 
in  temperature  as  would  the  perfect  combustion  of  thirty- 


HEAT  AND  POWER  FROM  THE  AIR  315 

five  pounds  of  coal.    Professor  Thomson  suggested  the  es- 
sential features  of  a  mechanism  to  do  this. 

Westinghouse  meditated  long  on  this  principle.  He  con- 
cluded that  it  might  be  applied  practically  to  heating  and 
cooling  buildings  and  to  refrigerating,  and  that  an  excess 
of  power  might  be  developed  that  would  be  available  for 
other  purposes.  He  speculated  deeply  on  the  matter,  and 
designed  some  of  the  apparatus,  and  by  much  ingenious 
and  subtle  reasoning  thoroughly  convinced  himself  and 
more  than  half  convinced  some  excellent  engineers.  He 
drew  up  preliminary  specifications  for  a  patent  and  sent 
them  to  Lord  Kelvin.  It  was  his  purpose  not  only  to  heat 
or  cool  buildings,  but  actually  to  generate  useful  power 
in  excess  of  that  required  to  set  the  mechanism  in  motion. 
Lord  Kelvin,  being  a  true  and  loyal  friend  and  a  scrupulous 
gentleman,  cabled  back  immediately  on  receipt  of  the  speci- 
fications, and  the  sanguine  letter  transmitting  them:  "Heat 
of  atmosphere  cannot  be  utilized  to  generate  power.  To 
prove  this,  I  am  writing  and  sending  printed  books."  He 
did  not  intend  to  let  his  friend  make  a  mistake,  and  fol- 
lowed the  cable  the  same  day,  with  a  letter,  giving  refer- 
ences to  passages  in  the  books.  About  the  same  time,  an 
engineer  in  the  Westinghouse  Machine  Company  wrote 
to  Westinghouse:  "I  hope  it  is  no  intrusion  for  me  to 
call  your  attention  to  a  fundamental  law  of  thermody- 
namics which  you  appear  to  have  misunderstood  after  read- 
ing Kelvin's  paper.  I  do  this  not  for  the  purpose  of  dis- 
suading you  from  experimenting  (as  I  believe  you  would 
probably  never  feel  entirely  satisfied  without  making  the 
experiments)  but  in  the  hope  that  it  may  enable  you  to 
interpret  the  results  which  you  are  likely  to  obtain,"  which 
showed  astuteness  as  well  as  candor.  We  all  remember 
that  "John  P.  Robinson  he  sez  they  didn't  know  every- 


316  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

thin'  down  in  Judee."  Perhaps  Westinghouse  had  some 
such  notion. 

Briefly  stated,  the  thermodyriamic  principles  involved 
are  that  the  heat  of  the  atmosphere  may  be  concentrated 
by  expending  power  derived  from  an  external  source.  If 
the  concentration  is  through  a  range  of  only  a  few  degrees 
a  large  quantity  may  be  concentrated  by  expending  a  small 
quantity  of  power.  The  heat  thus  concentrated  may  be 
used  in  a  heat  engine  to  again  produce  power  by  undergoing 
degradation  of  temperature;  but  the  power  produced  by 
the  degradation  of  this  concentrated  heat  can  never,  under 
any  conditions,  equal  the  original  power  from  the  external 
source  used  in  concentrating  the  heat.  Westinghouse 
recognized  the  authority  and  the  respectability  of  this  dic- 
tum, but  to  him  it  was  not  a  law,  universal  and  unquali- 
fied, until  he  had  seen  the  proof.  He  could  not  "feel  en- 
tirely satisfied  without  making  the  experiments." 

Less  than  a  month  after  his  cable,  Lord  Kelvin  wrote 
in  answer  to  further  letters  from  Westinghouse:  "You 
should  indeed  think  no  more  of  this  chimera  of  utilizing 
the  heat  of  the  atmosphere  for  motive  power."  And  again, 
in  the  same  letter:  "The  thermodynamic  activity  of  the 
heat  you  will  get  must  be  greatly  less  than  that  of  the  heat 
supplied  to  the  machine."  Westinghouse  valued  informed 
and  judicious  opinion,  but  he  was  not  awed  by  the  author- 
ity of  a  great  name.  Only  eight  years  before  the  letter  just 
quoted,  he  had  met  and  defeated  a  group  of  the  most  emi- 
nent physicists  and  electricians,  led  by  Lord  Kelvin  him- 
self, in  the  discussion  over  the  use  of  direct  current  or 
alternating  current  hi  the  first  Niagara  Falls  hydroelectric 
development.  He  had  long  ago  ceased  to  shrink  from 
measuring  himself  with  any  man — if  he  had  ever  had  any 
such  shrinking.  He  writes  to  Lord  Kelvin:  "I  duly  re- 


ONE  SORT  OF  PASTIME  317 

ceived  the  books — and  read  the  paper  that  you  thought 
clearly  demonstrated  the  impossibility  of  utilizing  the  heat 
of  the  atmosphere  for  power  purposes.  After  most  careful 
study  of  the  paper,  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  did 
not  meet  the  case  at  all."  He  adds:  " I  fear  you  have  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  I  have  already  wasted  a  good  deal 
of  time  on  this  subject,  but  as  my  work  on  the  apparatus 
is,  in  a  measure,  a  pastime,  I  shall  not  lose  anything.  On 
the  contrary,  I  find  that  I  have  already  gained  a  good  deal 
from  this  work  in  connection  with  other  matters."  Lord 
Cromer  said  of  Chinese  Gordon:  "A  man  who  habitually 
consults  the  Prophet  Isaiah  when  in  a  difficulty,  is  not  apt 
to  obey  the  orders  of  any  one."  The  man  who  faces  a  dif- 
ficulty as  a  form  of  sport — the  greater  the  difficulty,  the 
greater  the  sport — will  not  always  be  governed  by  the  opin- 
ion of  philosophers,  however  eminent. 

Westinghouse  followed  this  particular  pastime  with  his 
usual  purpose,  to  win  the  game.  That  which  has  been  told 
above,  took  place  late  in  1900.  In  November  1901,  he 
put  the  matter  before  Professor  Dewar  of  the  Royal  In- 
stitution, London,  asking  for  a  report  on  his  patent  speci- 
fications. In  ten  days,  Professor  Dewar  answered  that 
"the  specification  explicitly  claims  perpetual  motion." 
The  reasons  are  set  forth,  briefly  but  adequately,  and  the 
report  ends  with  these  words:  "For  these  reasons  the  pro- 
posals in  the  specification  will  undoubtedly  fail  to  achieve 
their  object;  and  there  is  no  possibility  of  any  modifica- 
tion of  them  leading  to  success."  In  Colonel  Roosevelt's 
delightful  letters  to  his  children,  he  tells  of  wrestling  three 
times  a  week  with  two  Japanese  wrestlers.  "I  am  not  the 
age  or  the  build  to  be  whirled  lightly  over  an  opponent's 
head,  and  batted  down  on  a  mattress  without  damage — my 
right  ankle  and  my  left  wrist  and  one  thumb  and  both 


318  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

great  toes  are  swollen  enough  to  more  or  less  impair  their 
usefulness,  and  I  am  well  mottled  with  bruises  elsewhere. 
Still  I  have  made  good  progress,  and  they  have  taught  me 
three  new  throws  that  are  perfect  corkers."  Dewar's  throw 
was  a  perfect  corker,  but  it  did  not  stop  the  sport.  Three 
years  later,  Westinghouse  asked  for  a  report  from  a  learned 
and  ingenious  engineer  associated  with  him  in  work  on  re- 
ducing gears  for  marine  turbines,  MacAlpine.  He  reports 
(implicitly)  that  the  heating  and  cooling  principle  is  theo- 
retically sound,  but  that  the  "cumbrous  apparatus  would 
consume  so  much  energy  by  friction  that  in  practice  no 
economy  could  be  realized."  The  power  proposition  (no 
part  of  Kelvin's  project)  is  "perpetual  motion.  It  vio- 
lates the  second  law  of  thermodynamics,  in  the  form  given 
to  it  by  Professor  Thomson  (Lord  Kelvin)"  which  law  "is 
not  likely  to  be  overthrown  by  any  simple  mechanism." 
Thereafter  the  matter  languished,  but  it  never  lost  all  its 
interest,  for  as  late  as  1913  there  are  references  to  it  in 
Westinghouse's  letters;  but  in  later  years  his  serious  thought 
was  in  the  direction  of  heating  and  cooling,  rather  than 
power. 

What  has  just  been  told  is  an  extreme  example  of  West- 
inghouse's  independence  of  mind.  He  was  not  "entirely 
satisfied  without  making  the  experiments."  He  accepted 
nothing  on  a  great  name  or  a  great  position.  But  it  must 
not  be  inferred  that  he  was  lightly  sceptical.  Far  from  it, 
he  was  a  reverent  man  in  mind  and  soul.  This  was  his  at- 
titude toward  religion,  toward  the  State,  toward  the  courts, 
toward  the  family,  and  toward  his  father  and  mother.  He 
respected  established  things;  he  revered  high  and  fine 
things.  This  was  not  a  matter  of  reason,  but  of  instinct. 
When  he  was  a  young  man  he  joined  a  church,  and  his  life 


RELIGIOUS  FAITH  319 

long  he  was  an  orthodox  Christian.  He  was  never  inter- 
ested in  religious  speculation,  and  he  gave  little  time  or 
attention  to  religious  observances,  but  to  the  end  of  his 
life  there  was  no  sign  of  any  loss  of  faith. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
THE  MEANING  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

A  PROFESSIONAL  biographer  says,  "the  first  office  of 
the  biographer  is  to  facilitate  the  proper  reaction  between 
biography  and  history."  Perhaps  so.  The  man  who  un- 
dertakes to  write  the  life  of  George  Westinghouse  does  not 
need  to  ask  what  this  wise-sounding  saying  means,  nor  does 
he  need  to  have  such  a  purpose  definitely  in  mind.  The 
life  lived  by  George  Westinghouse  was  history;  not  a  his- 
tory of  wars  and  politics,  but  of  something  greater.  As  we 
have  lately  seen,  to  our  sorrow,  war  and  politics  sometimes 
block  the  advance  of  civilization  for  generations.  The 
Great  War,  by  an  appalling  destruction  of  property  and 
a  more  appalling  destruction  of  the  flower  of  the  race,  has 
set  the  world  back  by  years  that  cannot  even  be  guessed 
at.  The  things  that  concerned  Westinghouse  were  all,  every 
one  of  them,  fundamental  things  in  the  advance  of  civiliza- 
tion. We  have  been  more  or  less  conscious  of  this  as  we 
have  looked  at  them  in  detail.  Now  let  us  sum  up. 

Just  what  did  George  Westinghouse  mean  to  the  world  ? 
Few  rulers  of  nations  have  done  so  much  for  mankind,  for 
he  was  an  agent  of  civilization  acting  in  the  new  era.  He 
belongs  to  the  generations.  All  of  this  will  be  better  un- 
derstood as  the  years  go  on,  and  as  scholars  and  philos- 
ophers analyze  the  influences  at  work  in  the  last  part  of 
the  nineteenth  century  and  the  first  part  of  the  twentieth 
century  to  carry  forward  the  evolution  of  transportation 
and  the  manufacture  of  power.  These  are  major  causes 
in  the  progress  of  the  race  in  that  new  era  into  which  we 
have  entered  within  a  century  and  a  half. 

320 


BESSEMER  AND  DEMOCRACY  321 

We  shall  first  consider  transportation.  It  is  a  famous 
saying  of  Macaulay's  that,  "of  all  the  inventions,  the  alpha- 
bet and  the  printing  press  alone  excepted,  those  inventions 
which  abridge  distance  have  done  the  most  for  civilization 
of  our  species.  Every  improvement  of  the  means  of  loco- 
motion benefits  mankind  morally  and  intellectually  as  well 
as  materially."  This  idea  long  ago  passed  into  the  com- 
mon intellectual  stock  of  mankind.  Nobody  questions  it. 

In  1890,  Mr.  Abram  S.  Hewitt  was  awarded  the  Besse- 
mer Medal  for  his  distinguished  services  to  society  in  the 
development  of  the  iron  and  steel  industry.  In  receiving 
that  medal,  he  said: 

The  Bessemer  invention  takes  its  rank  with  the  great 
events  which  have  changed  the  face  of  society  since  the 
time  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  invention  of  printing,  the 
construction  of  the  magnetic  compass,  the  discovery  of 
America,  and  the  introduction  of  the  steam  engine  are  the 
only  capital  events  in  modern  history  which  belong  in  the 
same  category  with  the  Bessemer  process.  .  .  .  The  face 
of  society  has  been  transformed  by  these  discoveries  and 
inventions.  .  .  .  First,  the  cost  of  constructing  railways 
has  been  so  greatly  lessened  as  to  permit,  of  their  extension 
into  sparsely  inhabited  regions.  .  .  .  Second,  the  cost  of 
transportation  has  been  reduced  to  so  low  a  point  as  to 
bring  into  the  markets  of  the  world  crude  products  which 
formerly  would  not  bear  removal.  ...  I  think  it  is  doubt- 
ful whether  any  event  in  modern  times  of  equal  significance 
has  occurred.  Sir  Henry  Bessemer  has  certainly  been  the 
great  apostle  of  democracy. 

Through  the  ages  serfdom  has  been  not  merely  a  matter 
of  laws  and  customs,  but  also  a  consequence  of  the  cost 
of  carrying  goods,  and  the  cost  and  difficulty  of  movement 
of  the  individual.  Cheap  and  abundant  transportation 
has  released  man  from  his  bondage  to  conditions,  and  given 


322  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

him  his  opportunity.  Mr.  Hewitt  spoke  in  fine  and  just 
terms;  but  there  have  been  other  apostles  of  democracy 
working  in  the  field  of  transportation.  Amongst  them  were 
George  Stephenson  and  George  Westinghouse.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  try  to  fix  their  relative  rank;  there  is  glory 
enough  to  go  around.  Westinghouse's  best-known  and 
probably  his  most  important  work  in  the  field  of  transpor- 
tation was  in  power  braking.  Close  after  this  come  power 
signalling  and  switching.  Power  braking  and  signalling 
became  automatic  almost  from  the  start.  Another  im- 
provement in  the  apparatus  of  transportation;  originated 
and  developed  by  Westinghouse,  is  the  friction  draft  gear. 
The  importance  of  this  in  reducing  the  cost  of  transpor- 
tation is  known  to  railroad  men,  but  the  public  has  never 
heard  of  it. 

The  ultimate  effect  on  the  art  of  transportation  of  the 
work  of  Westinghouse  in  the  field  of  alternating  current 
especially,  and  in  the  electric  art  generally,  cannot  yet  be 
estimated,  but  it  may  possibly  be  greater  than  the  effect 
of  any  other  one  of  his  activities.  That  will  depend  upon 
the  direction  in  which  electric  traction  develops,  but  it  is 
already  very  great. 

No  adequate  conception  of  the  immense  importance  of 
this  group  of  activities  can  be  had  except  by  considering 
them  all  together  as  part  of  the  great  art  of  land  transpor- 
tation. The  weight  of  trains,  the  speed  of  trains,  their  fre- 
quency and  regularity  of  movement,  as  now  seen  as  a  matter 
of  course,  would  have  been  impossible  without  the  auto- 
matic power  brake.  But  weight,  speed,  frequency,  and 
regularity  are  not  merely  matters  of  public  comfort  and 
convenience;  they  are  elements  in  the  cost  of  moving  pas- 
sengers and  goods.  By  the  combination  and  adjustment 
of  these  elements  the  greatest  use  is  got  out  of  the  units  of 


BRAKES,  SIGNALS,  TRANSPORTATION  323 

track,  of  equipment,  and  of  man  power.  The  humanitarian 
service  of  the  air  brake  in  saving  life  and  personal  injury 
appeals  first  to  the  imagination  of  the  public,  but  that  is 
the  least  of  its  services  to  mankind.  In  the  reduction  of 
cost  of  carriage  it  has  helped  to  "change  the  face  of 
society." 

The  same  things  are  true  in  a  less  degree  of  automatic 
power  signalling.  Excellent  signalling  can  be  done  by  man 
power,  as  is  done  in  the  British  Islands,  but  it  is  costly  when 
wages  are  high.  Automatic  power  signalling,  like  power 
braking,  is  one  of  the  "improvements  in  the  means  of  loco- 
motion which  benefit  mankind  morally  and  intellectually 
as  well  as  materially." 

Let  us  stand  on  the  platform  at  a  subway  station  in 
New  York.  Presently  a  long  train  comes  roaring  out  of 
the  darkness,  running  at  speed,  and  one  thinks  it  is  not 
going  to  stop.  Suddenly  the  speed  slackens  and  directly 
the  train  stands,  with  admirable  precision,  at  its  proper 
place.  A  few  seconds  later  it  roars  away  again  into  the 
darkness,  and  in  another  few  seconds  another  train  follows, 
with  the  same  performance.  And  so  on,  hour  after  hour 
and  day  after  day  the  procession  of  trains  passes  with  un- 
erring regularity.  It  is  a  most  remarkable  feat  of  trans- 
portation, and  it  is  one  of  the  sights  of  the  world.  To  one 
who  has  knowledge  enough  and  imagination  enough  to 
realize  what  it  means  in  the  use  and  control  of  power,  and 
in  service  to  mankind,  it  is  one  of  the  most  impressive 
sights. 

Or,  let  us  stand  at  a  wayside  station  on  a  great  railroad, 
where  there  are  four  tracks,  and  just  beyond  a  yard  with 
a  dozen  tracks  with  all  the  necessary  crossovers  and  turn- 
outs. Above  is  a  group  of  brilliant  signal  lights.  A  train 
of  a  dozen  sleeping  cars  hauled  by  two  locomotives  thun- 


324  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

ders  by  at  sixty  miles  an  hour,  shaking  the  earth,  and  goes 
its  proper  way  through  the  maze  of  tracks,  still  at  sixty 
miles  an  hour. 

Only  a  few  years  ago  such  things  would  have  been  physic- 
ally impossible,  and  they  are  possible  now  only  through 
the  development  of  the  air  brake,  Westinghouse's  own 
invention,  and  the  development  of  the  art  of  signalling  and 
interlocking,  in  which  he  was  a  bold  and  fertile  pioneer. 

These  phenomena  are  part  of  the  movement  of  passen- 
gers. A  more  important  matter  is  the  movement  of  freight, 
for  the  cost  of  moving  freight  and  its  regularity  affect  every 
civilized  human  being  every  moment  of  his  life.  Even 
the  savage  in  the  wilderness  is  not  entirely  free  from  the 
effects  of  this  fundamental  element  of  society.  The  cost 
of  our  food,  our  fuel,  our  clothes,  our  building  material, 
and  our  tools  is  constantly  dependent  on  the  cost  of  trans- 
portation. In  the  United  States  freight  costs  are  the  lowest 
in  the  world,  and  this  is  especially  important  because  we 
are  the  greatest  producers  of  foodstuffs  and  of  the  products 
of  the  forest  and  the  mine,  and  because  our  hauls  from  pro- 
ducer to  consumer  are  so  long.  In  the  United  States,  too, 
the  tons  of  freight  moved  one  mile  per  head  of  population 
is  probably  the  greatest  in  the  world;  but  a  positive  state- 
ment is  a  little  dangerous  because  ton-mile  statistics  are 
not  kept  in  some  of  the  great  nations. 

It  would  be  idle  and,  indeed,  invidious  to  try  to  appor- 
tion the  credit  for  the  growth  in  the  United  States  of  the 
art  of  carrying  freight,  but  to  Westinghouse,  to  his  inven- 
tions, his  courage,  his  faith  and  skill,  a  splendid  part  of  that 
credit  belongs.  Mr.  Hewitt  was  speaking  of  the  reduction 
of  the  cost  of  transportation  when  he  said:  "I  think  it  is 
doubtful  whether  any  event  of  equal  significance  has  oc- 
curred in  modern  times." 


MANUFACTURE  OF  POWER  325 

Renan  says  that  the  capital  event  in  the  history  of  the 
world  was  the  establishment  of  the  Christian  religion.  The 
capital  event,  he  says.  The  improvement  of  the  means  of 
transportation  was  not  an  event,  but  an  evolution,  proceed- 
ing through  the  centuries.  This  evolution  stands  with  the 
Christian  religion,  with  the  written  alphabet,  and  with  the 
art  of  printing  amongst  the  major  things  that  have  in- 
fluenced the  progress  of  mankind,  since  mankind  emerged 
from  barbarism  into  civilization.  In  the  list  of  men  who 
have  done  most  for  this  evolution  we  may  put  four  names 
at  the  head — George  Stephenson,  Robert  Fulton,  Henry 
Bessemer,  and  George  Westinghouse. 

The  contributions  of  Westinghouse  to  the  development 
of  the  modern  system  of  land  transportation  were  only 
part  of  his  services  to  "the  civilization  of  our  species."  It 
is  fairly  questionable  if  they  were  the  most  important  part. 
A  few  years  ago  an  eminent  American  engineer,  Mr.  George 
S.  Morison,  produced  a  striking  group  of  addresses  which, 
after  his  death,  were  published  in  a  little  volume  under 
the  title,  "The  New  Epoch  as  Developed  by  the  Manu- 
facture of  Power."  Mr.  Morison  cited  the  ethnical  epochs 
which  have  marked  the  development  of  the  human  race, 
viz.,  the  use  of  fire,  the  invention  of  the  bow  and  arrow, 
the  use  of  pottery,  the  domestication  of  animals,  the  manu- 
facture of  iron  and,  at  last,  the  invention  of  the  written 
alphabet.  Then  came  historical  civilization  and  the  eth- 
nical periods  were  considered  as  closed.  But  Mr.  Morison 
held  that  it  only  needed  a  new  capacity  to  make  an  epoch 
in  civilization  as  distinct  as  those  in  primitive  society.  Such 
a  new  capacity  was  found  when  men  learned  to  manufac- 
ture power.  That  is  not  to  create  power,  "but  to  change 
inert  matter  from  one  form  to  another  in  such  a  way  as 
to  generate  power."  Not  only  does  the  manufacture  of 


326  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

power  mark  a  new  epoch  in  development,  but  the  change  is 
greater  than  any  that  preceded  it;  greater  in  its  influence 
on  the  world;  greater  in  the  results  which  are  to  come. 
"The  manufacture  of  power  means  that,  wherever  needed, 
we  can  now  produce  unlimited  power.  Whatever  the 
measure  of  a  single  machine,  that  machine  can  be  used  to 
make  a  greater  one.  .  .  .  The  steam  engine  is  still  almost 
the  sole  representative  of  manufactured  power,  but  there 
is  no  reason  why  this  should  continue.  Electricity  as  a 
conveyor  of  power  has  been  developed  to  an  extent  which 
may  almost  be  classed  with  the  manufacture  of  power." 

The  manufacture  of  power,  now  but  about  a  hundred 
and  fifty  years  old,  has  already  changed  economic  and  so- 
cial conditions,  particularly  in  immense  addition  to  the 
wealth  of  the  world.  Sir  Auckland  Geddes,  British  Am- 
bassador to  the  United  States,  has  lately  said  that  "in  1770 
a  new  age  was  born."  James  Watt's  first  steam  engine 
patent  was  granted  in  January  1769.  From  that  we  may 
date  the  New  Era  of  manufactured  power.  Sir  Auckland 
said  that  "the  industrial  revolution  is  more  potent,  more 
far-reaching  in  its  effects  than  any  political  revolution  has 
been — a  change  that  has  brought,  or  will  bring,  happiness 
or  sorrow,  but  chiefly  increased  happiness,  to  millions  of 
men  and  women  and  children — a  change  immeasurably 
more  profound  in  all  its  implications  than  the  fall  of  the 
Roman  Empire."  He  might  have  gone  further  and  said, 
as  Morison  said,  that  it  is  a  true  ethnical  epoch  in  the  his- 
tory of  mankind — an  epoch  more  important  than  any  of 
the  six  epochs  that  went  before  it.  That  is  why  we  have 
ventured  to  say  that  few  rulers  of  nations  have  done  so 
much  for  mankind  as  George  Westinghouse  did.  This  is 
a  tremendous  claim,  but  let  us  examine  its  foundations. 

In  the  manufacture  of  power,  as  in  the  development  of 


MANUFACTURE  OF  POWER  327 

transportation,  George  Westinghouse  stands  amongst  the 
apostles  of  democracy.  He  invented  and  caused  other  men 
to  invent.  He  created  companies  and  built  factories  in 
many  countries.  He  organized,  stimulated,  and  guided 
the  activities  of  scores  of  thousands  of  men  in  the  manu- 
facture of  prime  movers  and  auxiliary  machinery  and  ap- 
paratus. His  great  service  to  mankind  in  this  field  of 
manufacture  of  power  was  in  developing  the  use  of  the  al- 
ternating current  for  the  transmission  and  employment  of 
electrical  energy.  That  was  his  own  work.  He  did  more, 
far  more,  for  the  foundation  of  that  development  than  any 
other  man  who  ever  lived.  Into  it  entered  his  imagination, 
his  courage,  and  his  tenacity  in  greater  measure  perhaps 
than  into  any  other  of  his  deeds. 

The  state  of  the  electric  art  when  Westinghouse  first 
became  seriously  interested  in  the  possibilities  of  the  alter- 
nating current,  was  like  that  of  the  railroad  art  when  Sir 
Henry  Bessemer  brought  forth  his  revolutionary  invention 
for  making  steel.  Then  the  broad  and  rapid  development 
of  the  railroads  was  arrested  by  a  stubborn  physical  fact. 
Iron  rails  could  not  stand  up  under  the  increasing  wheel 
weights  and  speeds,  and  the  price  of  iron  rails  had  risen  to 
some  four  times  the  price  at  which  steel  rails  were  selling 
when  the  Great  War  came.  The  cost  of  maintenance  and 
of  new  construction  deterred  investors,  and  the  physical 
limit  set  for  weights  and  speeds  set  a  limit  to  further  re- 
duction of  transportation  costs  and  to  public  service.  Bes- 
semer came  with  cheap  steel,  and  the  art  of  land  trans- 
portation started  forward  again  and  has  never  since  been 
arrested  by  physical  conditions.  This  is  one  of  the  land- 
marks in  the  history  of  civilization. 

Something  exactly  analogous  happened  in  the  electric 
art.  When  Westinghouse  came  seriously  into  the  field, 


328  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

the  chief  use  of  electric  power  was  in  lighting.  Direct  cur- 
rent was  used  at  low  tension.  The  economical  distance  to 
which  power  could  be  transmitted  was  about  half  a  mile. 
This  meant  numerous  small  generating  stations.  If  we 
were  ever  to  have  cheap  electric  power,  it  must  be  produced 
in  large  volume,  in  generating  stations  so  placed  that  water 
power  could  be  had,  or  cheap  coal  and  abundant  condensing 
water,  and  with  the  economies  possible  only  hi  large-scale 
operations.  But  it  would  be  folly  to  establish  such  gen- 
erating stations  if  the  current  could  not  be  transmitted 
long  distances,  and  the  cost  of  transmitting  low-tension 
direct  current  prevented  that.  So  the  electric  art  was  faced 
by  limiting  physical  facts,  just  as  the  railroad  art  had  been 
twenty-five  years  earlier. 

Certain  inventions  and  experiments  in  alternating  cur- 
rent came  to  Westinghouse's  attention,  and  he  had  a  vision. 
He  saw  the  limits  of  direct  current  and  the  possibilities  of 
alternating  current  more  clearly  perhaps  than  any  other 
man  of  his  time,  certainly  more  clearly  than  any  other  man 
who  had  the  force,  the  faith,  and  the  capacity  to  carry  his 
vision  into  reality.  Even  Lord  Kelvin,  one  of  the  greatest 
physicists  of  his  generation,  and  a  man  of  broad  mind  and 
audacious  temperament,  opposed  Westinghouse  for  years 
in  his  projects  to  advance  the  use  of  the  alternating 
current.  Eventually  he  acknowledged  generously  that 
Westinghouse  was  right,  and  to  the  end  of  his  life  he  and 
Westinghouse  were  close  and  warm  friends,  and  they  were 
in  constant  professional  association. 

Having  seen  his  vision,  Westinghouse  proceeded,  with 
his  own  unsurpassed  fervor,  courage,  and  determination, 
and  with  his  great  intellectual  power,  to  develop  it  into 
physical  being.  He  bought  patents.  He  gathered  about 
him  a  group  of  brilliant  young  engineers,  and  stimulated 


ELECTRICITY  AND  CIVILIZATION  329 

and  guided  them  in  design,  invention,  and  experiment,  and 
through  many  and  varied  tribulations  he  moved  steadily 
on  to  triumph.  Considering  the  magnitude  of  his  task, 
his  progress  was  surprisingly  rapid. 

The  result  is  known  to  mankind,  but  its  importance  can 
only  be  understood  by  those  who  are  specially  informed. 
The  whole  structure  of  the  electric  art  as  applied  to  light- 
ing, industry,  and  transportation  stands  on  the  alternating 
current.  The  system  of  central  generating  plants,  hydraulic 
and  steam,  producing  enormous  quantities  of  current  and 
transmitting  it  long  distances,  would  have  been  economic- 
ally impossible  if  alternating-current  transmission  had  not 
been  developed  into  practice.  But  it  is  precisely  this  sys- 
tem of  production  and  distribution  that  has  given  the  world 
cheap  electric  energy.  Cheap  lighting  current  not  only 
beautifies  the  towns,  but  it  adds  every  day  some  uncount- 
able millions  of  hours  of  work  and  pleasure  to  the  activities 
of  men.  Cheap  power  current  has  increased  beyond  any 
possible  calculation  the  capacity  of  mills  and  factories.  It 
permitted  the  prodigious  development  of  trolley  roads  in 
the  country  and  of  electric  transportation  in  the  cities.  It 
has  brought  into  being  the  electrification  of  steam  railroads, 
which  is  well  begun  and  which,  so  far  as  can  now  be  seen, 
will  be  the  next  great  step  in  land  transportation. 

This,  briefly  and  inadequately  stated,  was  Westing- 
house's  relation  to  one  element  in  human  progress  which 
came  with  the  ability  to  manufacture  power.  Of  all  this 
he  says,  with  characteristic  modesty  in  one  of  his  rare  and 
lucid  addresses:  "To  the  part  I  took  in  bringing  forward, 
in  the  eighties  of  the  last  century,  the  alternating-current 
system  of  electric  generation  and  distribution  I  owe  much, 
if  not  all,  of  the  reputation  accorded  to  me  as  one  of  the 
many  pioneers  in  what  is  now  a  great  and  important  in- 


330  A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WESTINGHOUSE 

dustry."  The  consequent  increase  in  the  wealth,  the  well- 
being,  and  the  happiness  of  the  people  will  be  a  fascinating 
subject  for  speculation  for  centuries  to  come. 

We  venture  to  say,  with  due  regard  to  the  meaning  of 
every  word,  that  a  thousand  years  from  now,  when  scholars 
and  philosophers  try  to  measure  the  influence  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  human  race  of  the  era  of  manufactured  power, 
and  when  they  try  to  name  the  illustrious  men  of  that  era, 
they  will  write  high  in  the  shining  list  the  name  of  George 
Westinghouse. 


APPENDIX-PATENTS 

THE  main  purpose  in  preparing  these  lists  of  the  patents  of 
George  Westinghouse  is  to  relieve  the  text  of  a  great  volume  of 
technical  detail  and  to  make  that  detail  available  to  any  one  who 
may  wish  to  go  deeper  into  the  various  subjects,  now  or  in  years 
to  come.  Such  deeper  inquirers  will  be  comparatively  few,  but 
their  investigations  will  be  important  in  the  study  of  certain  arts. 
Presumably  the  importance  of  these  investigations  will  grow;  cer- 
tainly they  will  become  more  difficult  as  the  years  go  on. 

A  chronological  list  is  made  and  then  group  lists  are  given  of 
the  most  important  or  interesting  patents  in  the  various  arts. 
Under  the  designation  of  each  patent  the  essential  characteristics 
are  pointed  out  in  a  few  words,  and  in  the  case  of  a  few  patents, 
which  had  particular  influence  in  their  respective  arts,  a  some- 
what fuller  description  is  given.  It  is  supposed  that  this  treat- 
ment will  make  the  lists  useful  to  the  student  of  the  evolution  of 
transportation  and  to  the  student  of  the  manufacture  of  power, 
and  that  material  for  such  study  will  grow  in  value  as  time  passes. 

One  immediate  interest  of  the  lists  is  that  they  show  in  detail 
the  working  of  an  inventive  mind  and  the  fertility  which  pro- 
duced a  patentable  invention  every  six  weeks  for  forty-eight 
years.  Here  and  there  a  man  has  taken  out  more  patents,  but 
it  is  not  probable  that  many  men  ever  lived  who  have  taken  out 
so  many. 

Another  thing  shown  is  the  versatility,  and  another,  perhaps 
still  more  interesting,  is  that  every  one  of  Westinghouse 's  patents 
is  for  something  to  be  made  in  his  own  shops  or  used  in  his 
own  enterprises;  not  one  was  made  to  sell.  A  man  so  imagi- 
native could  have  produced  speculative  patents  with  ease  and 
without  limit,  but  he  always  thought  of  himself  as  part  of  his 
companies.  He  never  thought  of  gain  except  through  their 
prosperity. 

One  finds,  also,  in  examining  these  patents,  that  the  Patent 
331 


332 


APPENDIX 


Office  drawings  were  generally  made  from  working  drawings, 
that  the  drawings  and  specifications  are  complete  in  detail,  and 
that  the  thing  to  be  done  and  the  ways  of  doing  it  are  clearly 
described. 

Several  men,  having  special  knowledge  of  the  subjects,  have 
taken  part  in  preparing  the  lists.  If  their  notes  seem  sometimes 
to  be  short  and  inadequate,  it  must  be  remembered  that  they 
have  tried  to  keep  the  lists  within  reasonable  length. 

Only  the  United  States  patents  are  listed,  as  the  foreign  patents 
are  mostly  repetitions  of  those,  with  minor  variations. 

UNITED  STATES  PATENTS  OF  GEORGE 
WESTINGHOUSE 

GENERAL  LIST 


NUMBER 

DATE 

TITLE 

60,759 

Oct.       31,  1865 

Rotary  Steam  Engine. 

61,967 

Feb.      12,  1867 

Car  Replacer. 

76,365 

Apr.        7,  1868 

Railway  Frog. 

3,584* 

Aug.        3,  1869 

Railway  Frog. 

5,504* 

July       29,  1873 

Steam-Power  Brake  Devices. 

88,929 

April     13,  1869 

Steam-Power  Brake. 

106,899 

Aug.      30,  1870 

Improvement  in  Steam  Engine  and  Pump. 

109,695 

Nov.      29,  1870 

Atmospheric  Car-Brake  Pipe. 

115,667 

June        6,  1871 

Steam-Power  Car-Brake  Apparatus. 

5,506* 

July       29,  1873 

Steam-Power  Car-Brake  Apparatus. 

9,478* 

Nov.      23,  1880 

Steam-Power  Car-Brake  Apparatus. 

115,668 

June        6,  1871 

Steam-Engine  Valves  and  Ports. 

116,655 

July         4,  1871 

Valve  for  Air-Brake  Couplings. 

117,841 

Aug.        8,  1871 

Steam-Power  Air-Brake  Devices. 

5,505* 

July       29,  1873 

Steam-Power  Air-Brake  Devices. 

122,544 

Jan.        9,  1872 

Improvement  in  Exhaust  Valves  for  Steam 

and  Air  Engines. 

123,067 

Jan.       23,  1872 

Improvement  in  Steam-Power  Air  Brake. 

124,403 

March     5,  1872 

Improvement  in  Relief  Valves  for  Steam  Air- 

Brake  Cylinders. 

124,404 

March     5,  1872 

Improvement  in  Steam-Power  Air  Brakes  and 

Signals. 

124,405 

March    5,  1872 

Improvement  in  Steam  Air  Brakes. 

131,380 

Sept.      17,  1872 

Improvement  in  Balanced  Slide  Valves. 

131,985 

Oct.         8,  1872 

Improvement  in  Rotary  Valves. 

*Reissued. 


APPENDIX 


333 


NUMBER 

DATE 

TITLE 

134,177 

Dec.      24,  1872 

Steam  and  Air  Brakes. 

134,178 

Dec.      24,  1872 

Steam  and  Air  Brakes. 

134,408 

Dec.      31,  1872 

Steam  and  Air  Brakes. 

6,948* 

Feb.       22,  1876 

Steam  and  Air  Brake. 

136,396 

March     4,  1873 

Steam-Power  Brake  Couplings. 

136,397 

March     4,  1873 

Hose  Couplings. 

136,631 

March  11,  1873 

Steam-Power  Brake  Couplings. 

138,827 

May      13,  1873 

Valve  Devices  for  Steam  and  Air  Brakes. 

138,828 

May      13,  1873 

Rotary  Valves  for  Steam  Engines. 

141,685 

Aug.      12,  1873 

Valve  Devices  for  Fluid  Brakes. 

144,006 

Oct.       28,  1873 

Steam  and  Air  Brakes. 

144,005 

Oct.       28,  1873 

Locomotive  Air  Brakes. 

142,600 

Sept.       9,  1873 

Railroad  Car  Brakes. 

144,582 

Nov.      11,  1873 

Slack  Taking-up  Apparatus  for  Steam  and 

Air  Brakes. 

147,212 

Feb.        3,  1874 

Car  Brakes. 

149,901 

April     21,  1874 

Valves  for  Fluid-Brake  Pipes. 

149,902 

April     21,  1874 

Car  Brakes. 

156,322 

Oct.       27,  1874 

Discharge  Valves  for  Fluid  Brakes. 

156,323 

Oct.       27,  1874 

Tripping  Apparatus  for  Air  Brakes. 

157,951 

Dec.      22,  1874 

Pipe  Couplings. 

8,291* 

June      18,  1878 

Pipe  Couplings. 

159,533 

Feb.        9,  1875 

Pneumatic  Pump. 

159,782 

Feb.       16,  1875 

Steam-Engine  Valve  Gear. 

160,803 

March  16,1875 

Fluid  Ejector. 

162,782 

May       4,  1875 

Governor  for  Steam  Engine. 

166,489 

Aug.      10,  1875 

Vacuum-Brake  Pipe  Coupling. 

168,119 

Sept.     28,  1875 

Ejector  Attachment  for  Vacuum  Brakes. 

168,359 

Oct.         5,  1875 

Air  Valve  for  Power  Brakes. 

172,064 

Jan.       11,  1876 

Air-Brake  Valve. 

173,835 

Feb.      22,  1876 

Air  Compressor. 

175,886 

April     11,  1876 

Locomotive  Air  Brake. 

180,179 

July      25,  1876 

Air  Brake  and  Signal. 

205,710 

July        2,  1878 

Governor  for  Marine  Engines. 

214,335 

April     15,  1879 

Brake-Pipe  Coupling. 

214,336 

April      15,  1879 

Coupling  Valve. 

214,337 

April     15,  1879 

Automatic  Brake  Regulator. 

214,602 

April     22,  1879 

Cocks  for  Fluid-Pressure  Brake. 

214,603 

April     22,  1879 

Railway  Air-Brake  Apparatus. 

216,545 

June      17,  1879 

Operating  Valve  for  Steam  and  Air  Brakes. 

217,836 

July      22,  1879 

Fluid-Pressure  Brake  Apparatus. 

217,837 

July      22,  1879 

Piston  Diaphragm  for  Power  Brakes. 

217,838 

July       22,  1879 

Automatic  Brake  Relief  Valve. 

218,149 

Aug.        5,  1879 

Fluid-Pressure  Brake  Apparatus. 

218,150 

Aug.        5,  1879 

Automatic  Brake  Attachment. 

220,556 

Oct.       14,  1879 

Regulating  Valve  for  Automatic  Brakes. 

222,803 

Dec.      23,  1879 

Operating  Cock  for  Fluid-Pressure  Brakes. 

'Reissued. 


334 


APPENDIX 


ITOMBER 

DATE 

TITLE 

223,201 

Dec. 

30,  1879 

Auxiliary  Telephone  Exchange. 

223,202 

Dec. 

30,  1879 

Automatic  Telephone  Switch  for  Connecting 

Local  Lines  by  Means  of  Main  Line. 

224,565 

Feb. 

17,  1880 

Telephonic  Switches  and  Connections. 

225,898 

Mar. 

23,  1880 

Fluid-Pressure  Regulator. 

229,346 

June 

29,  1880 

Carbureter. 

235,922 

Dec. 

28,1880 

Fluid-Pressure  Brake. 

236,388 

Jan. 

4,1881 

Pipe  Coupling. 

236,520 

Jan. 

11,  1881 

Apparatus  for  Regulating  Dampers,  etc. 

237,149 

Feb. 

1,  1881 

Railway  Switch  Movement. 

239,000 

March 

15,  1881 

Feedwater  Apparatus. 

239,001 

March 

15,  1881 

Steam  Trap. 

240,062 

April 

12,  1881 

Fluid-Pressure  Regulator  for  Automatic 

Brakes. 

240,628 

April 

26,  1881 

Block  Signalling  Apparatus. 

240,629 

April 

26,  1881 

Switch  and  Signal  Apparatus. 

243,415 

June 

28,  1881 

Air-Brake  Apparatus. 

243,416 

June 

28,  1881 

Brake  Beam. 

243,417 

June 

28,  1881 

Fluid-Pressure  Brake. 

243,822 

July 

5,1881 

Compound  Hose  Coupling. 

245,108 

Aug. 

2,  1881 

Fluid-Pressure  Switch  and  Signal  Apparatus. 

245,109 

Aug. 

2,1881 

Air-Brake  Strainer  Attachment. 

245,110 

Aug. 

2,1881 

Air-Brake  Cut-Off  and  Relief  Valve. 

245,591 

Aug. 

9,1881 

Automatic  Electric  Current  Regulator. 

245,592 

Aug. 

9,  1881 

Combined  Electric  and  Fluid-Pressure  Mech- 

anism. 

246,053 

Aug. 

23,  1881 

Interlocking  Switch  and  Signal  Apparatus. 

249,128 

Nov. 

1,1881 

Pipe  Coupling  for  Pneumatic  Railway  Brakes. 

251,400 

Dec. 

27,  1881 

Valve  Arrangement  for  Pneumatic  Railway 

Brakes. 

251,980 

Jan. 

3,1882 

Regulating  Valve  for  Railway  Brakes. 

267,473 

Nov. 

14,  1882 

Hose  Protector. 

270,527 

Jan. 

9,1883 

Cock  Grinding  Machine. 

270,528 

Jan. 

9,1883 

Air-Brake  Pressure  Regulator. 

270,867 

Jan. 

16,  1883 

Electric  Circuit  for  Railway  Signalling. 

280,269 

June 

26,  1883 

Fluid-Pressure  Regulator. 

282,249 

July 

31,  1883 

Track  Circuit  Connector. 

282,250 

July 

31,  1883 

Track  Circuit  Connector. 

287,894 

Nov. 

6,  1883 

Fluid-Pressure  Gage  Tester. 

288,388 

Nov. 

13,  1883 

Connection  for  Railway  Brakes. 

290,507 

Dec. 

18,  1883 

Boiler  Feeder. 

300,543 

June 

17,  1884 

Apparatus  for  Relieving  Pressure  in  Brake 

Cylinders. 

301,191 

July 

1,  1884 

System  for  Conveying  and  Utilizing  Gas  Un- 

der Pressure. 

306,566 

Oct. 

14,  1884 

Means  for  Detecting  Leaks  in  Gas  Mains. 

10,561* 

Feb. 

17,  1885 

Means  for  Detecting  Leaks  in  Gas  Mains. 

*  Reissued. 


APPENDIX 


335 


NUMBER 

DATE 

TITLE 

307,606 

Nov.        4,  1884 

Well-Drilling    Apparatus    for    Oil,    Gas,    or 

Water. 

309,591 

Dec.      23,  1884 

Regulating  Steam  Supply  to  Compound  En- 

gines. 

309,592 

Dec.      23,  1884 

Regulating  Steam  Supply  to  Engines. 

310,347 

Jan.         6,  1885 

Pressure  Regulator. 

310,348 

Jan.         6,  1885 

Pressure  Regulator  and  Relief  Valve. 

312,541 

Feb.       17,  1885 

Means  for  Detecting  Leaks  in  Gas  Mains. 

312,542 

Feb.       17,  1885 

Means  for  Detecting  Leaks  in  Gas  Mains. 

312,543 

Feb.       17,  1885 

Pressure  Regulator  and  Cut-Off. 

312,777 

Feb.       24,  1885 

Means  for  Carrying  Off  Leakage  from  Gas 

Mains. 

313,393 

March    3,  1885 

Connection  for  Pipe  Lines. 

314,089 

March  17,1885 

System  for  the  Protection  of  Railroad  Tracks 

and  Gas  Pipe  Lines. 

315,363 

April       7,  1885 

Means  for  Detecting  Leaks  in  Gas  Mains. 

318,839 

May      26,  1885 

Regulator  for  Gas  and  Air  Supply  to  Furnaces. 

318,840 

May      26,  1885 

Pipe  Coupling  for  Gas  Mains. 

318,841 

May      26,  1885 

Pipe  Joint  for  Gas  Mains. 

319,364 

June        2,  1885 

Means  for  Detecting  and  Carrying  Off  Leak- 

age from  Gas  Mains. 

319,365 

June        2,  1885 

Pipe  Line  for  Gas  Supply. 

319,765 

June        9,  1885 

Stop-Valve  Box  for  Pipe  Lines. 

323,246 

July       26,  1885 

Pipe  Line. 

323,840 

Aug.        4,  1885 

Method  of  Conveying  and  Supplying  Gas. 

324,905 

Aug.      25,  1885 

Pressure  Regulator  and  Cut-Off. 

328,368 

Oct.       13,  1885 

Means  for  Conveying  and  Supplying  Gas. 

330,179 

Nov.      10,  1885 

Means  for  Detecting  and  Carrying  Off  Leak- 

age from  Gas  Mains. 

331,595 

Dec.        1,  1885 

Means  for  Detecting  and  Carrying  Off  Leak- 

age from  Gas  Mains. 

331,596 

Dec.        1,  1885 

Means  for  Detecting  and  Closing  Leaks   in 

Gas  Mains. 

333,800 

Jan.         5,  1886 

Means  for  Conveying  and  Supplying  Gas. 

340,266 

April      20,  1886 

Means  for  Preventing  Leakage  in  Gas  Mains. 

340,267 

April     20,  1886 

Pipe  Joint  for  Gas  Mains. 

340,268 

April     20,  1886 

Pipe  Joint  for  Gas  Mains. 

341,295 

May        4,  1886 

Pressure  Regulator  and  Cut-Off. 

342,552 

May      25,  1886 

System  of  Electrical  Distribution. 

342,553 

May      25,  1886 

Induction  Coil. 

342,659 

May      25,  1886 

Pipe  Joint  for  Gas  Mains. 

344,701 

June      29,  1886 

Means  for  Detecting  and  Carrying  Off  Leak- 

age from  Gas  Mains. 

345,093 

July         6,  1886 

Car  Brake. 

345,820 

July       20,  1886 

Automatic  Brake  Regulator. 

347,673 

Aug.      17,  1886 

Proportional  Meter. 

349,130 

Sept.      14,  1886 

Dynamometer. 

336 


APPENDIX 


NtJMBER 

DATE 

TITLE 

352,382 

Nov.        9,  1886 

Pressure  Regulator  and  Cut-Off. 

352,725 

Nov.      16,  1886 

Telegraphic  Relay. 

353,186 

Nov.      23,  1886 

Thermostat. 

357,109 

Feb.        1,  1887 

Electrical  Interlocking  Mechanism  for  Switches 

and  Signals. 

357,295 

Feb.        8,  1887 

Commutator  for  Dynamo  Electric  Machines. 

357,296 

Feb.        8,  1887 

Electric  Railway  Signalling. 

358,518 

March     1,  1887 

Binding  Post. 

358,519 

March     1,  1887 

Electropneumatic  Interlocking  Apparatus. 

358,520 

March     1,  1887 

Electric  Fluid-Pressure  Engine. 

358,521 

March     1,  1887 

Electrically  Actuated  Fluid-Pressure  Motor. 

358,713 

March     1,  1887 

Electrically  Actuated  Fluid-Pressure  Motor 

and  Circuits  Therefor. 

359,303 

March  15,  1887 

Fluid-Pressure  Motor. 

360,070 

March  29,  1887 

Fluid-Pressure  Automatic  Brake  Mechanism. 

360,638 

April       5,  1887 

Railway  Electric  Signalling  Apparatus. 

365,454 

June      28,  1887 

Long-Distance  Gas  Distribution. 

366,361 

July       12,  1887 

Electric  Conductor. 

366,362 

July       12,  1887 

Electrical  Converter. 

366,544 

July       12,  1887 

Electrical  Converter. 

370,510 

Sept.     27,  1887 

Gas  Supply  System. 

373,035 

Nov.       8,  1887 

System  of  Electrical  Distribution. 

373,036 

Nov.       8,  1887 

Automatic  Circuit  Controlling  Apparatus  for 

Systems  of  Electrical  Distribution. 

373,037 

Nov.       8,  1887 

System  of  Electrical  Distribution. 

373,038 

Nov.       8,  1887 

Converter  Box. 

373,706 

Nov.     22,  1887 

Locomotive  Driver  Brake. 

374,858 

Dec.      13,  1887 

Dynamo  Electric  Machine. 

376,837 

Jan.       24,  1888 

Fluid-Pressure  Automatic  Brake  Mechanism. 

382,920 

May      15,  1888 

Nut  Lock. 

383,678 

May      29,  1888 

Electric  Meter. 

383,679 

May     29,  18S8 

Mounting  Armatures  of  Dynamos. 

383,68t) 

May     29,  1888 

Electric  Meter. 

388,163 

Aug.      21,  1888 

System  of  Gas  Distribution. 

389,032 

Sept.       4,  1888 

Pressure  Regulator  and  Cut-Off. 

390,930 

Oct.        9,  1888 

Synchronizing  Electric  Generators. 

391,997 

Oct.       30,  1888 

Buffing  Apparatus. 

393,596 

Nov.      27,  1888 

Electric  Fluid-Pressure  Engine. 

399,103 

March    5,  1889 

Brake  Shoe. 

399,639 

March  12,  1889 

System  of  Electrical  Distribution. 

400,420 

March  26,  1889 

Fluid  Meter. 

400,532 

April       2,  1889 

Service  Pipe  Connection  for  Gas  Mains. 

401,915 

April     23,  1889 

Automatic  Pump  Governor  for  Brake  Mech- 

anisms. 

401,916 

April     23,  1889 

Engineer's  Brake  Valve. 

404,139 

May      28,  1889 

System  of  Electrical  Distribution. 

405,812 

June      25,  1889 

Compound  Engine. 

APPENDIX 


337 


NUMBER 

DATE 

TITLE 

415,595 

Nov.      19,  1889 

Brake  Apparatus  for  Six-  Wheeled  Trucks. 

420,132 

Jan.       28,  1890 

Steam-Heating  Apparatus  for  Railway  Cars. 

425,059 

April       8,  1890 

Fluid-Pressure  Automatic  Brake  Mechanism. 

427,489 

May       6,  1890 

Alternating-Current  Electric  Meter. 

428,435 

May      20,  1890 

Alternating-Current  Arc  Lamp. 

432,715 

July       22,  1890 

Brake  Cylinder  Head. 

434,165 

Aug.      12,  1890 

Subway  for  Electric  Conductors. 

436,200 

Sept.       9,  1890 

Electric  Converter. 

437,740 

Oct.        7,  1890 

Fluid-Pressure  Automatic  Brake. 

440,082 

Nov.       4,  1890 

Automatic  Brake  Regulator. 

441,209 

Nov.      25,  1890 

Compound  Pumping  Engine. 

446,159 

Feb.       10,  1891 

Switch  and  Signal  Apparatus. 

448,827 

March  24,  1891 

Air  Brake. 

450,652 

April     21,  1891 

Electric  Locomotor. 

454,129 

June      16,  1891 

Pipe  Coupling. 

455,028 

June      30,  1891 

Rotary  Engine. 

455,029 

June      30,  1891 

Piston. 

466,590 

Jan.         5,  1892 

Apparatus  for  Heating  Cars. 

493,881 

March  21,  1893 

Rotary  Water  Meter. 

497,394 

May      16,  1893 

Conduit  Electric  Railway. 

497,436 

May      16,  1893 

Sectional  Contact  Conductor  for  Electric  Rail- 

ways. 

499,335 

June      13,  1893 

Buffing  Mechanism  for  Cars. 

499,336 

June      13,  1893 

Draw-Gear  Apparatus  for  Cars. 

520,975 

June       5,  1894 

Converter  System  for  Electric  Railways. 

524,749 

Aug.      21,  1894 

System  of  Electrical  Distribution. 

538,001 

April     23,  1895 

Quick  Action  Valve  for  Air  Brakes. 

543,280 

July       23,  1895 

Incandescent  Electric  Lamp. 

543,915 

Aug.        6,  1895 

Draw  Gear  and  Buffing  Apparatus. 

545,994 

Sept.      10,  1895 

Draw  Gear  and  Buffing  Apparatus. 

550,359 

Nov.      26,  1895 

Exhaust  Pump. 

550,465 

Nov.      26,  1895 

Electric  Railway. 

550,466 

Nov.      26,  1895 

Rotary  Pumping  and  Motor  Apparatus. 

550,467 

Nov.      26,  1895 

Electric  and  Fluid  Locomotor. 

550,468 

Nov.      26,  1895 

Ventilating  Means  for  Electrical  Apparatus. 

556,602 

March  17,1896 

Underground  Conductor  for  Electric  Rail- 

ways. 

557,463 

March  31,  1896 

Engineer's  Brake  Valve. 

560,452 

May      19,  1896 

Electric  Railway  System. 

573,066 

Dec.       15,  1896 

Electric  Railway  Construction. 

573,190 

Dec.      15,  1896 

Fluid-Pressure  Automatic  Brake. 

576,492 

Feb.         2,  1897 

Truck. 

579,506 

March  23,  1897 

Current-Collecting  Device  for  Railway  Vehi- 

cles. 

579,525 

March  23,  1897 

System  of  Circuits  and  Apparatus  for  Electric 

Railways. 

579,526 

March  23,  1897 

Electropneumatic  Locomotive. 

338 


APPENDIX 


NUMBER 

DATE 

TITLE 

579,527 

March  23,  1897 

Electric  Railway  System. 

582,494 

May      11,  1897 

Core  for  Electrical  Machine. 

583,584 

June        1,  1897 

Gas  Engine. 

583,585 

June        1,  1897 

Means  for  Controlling  and  Regulating  Oper- 

ation of  Gas  Engines. 

583,586 

June        1,  1897 

Electric  Igniter  for  Gas  Engines. 

584,911 

June      22,  1897 

Electric  Railway  System. 

591,314 

Oct.         5,  1897 

Electric  Railway  System. 

593,710 

Nov.      16,  1897 

Quick-Action  Triple  Valve. 

593,711 

Nov.      16,  1897 

Quick-Action  Triple  Valve. 

595,007 

Dec.        7,  1897 

Elevator. 

595,008 

Dec.        7,  1897 

Electric  Railway. 

595,027 

Dec.        7,  1897 

Hydraulic  Pumping  and  Motor  Apparatus. 

606,828 

July         5,  1898 

Travelling  Contact  Device  for  Electric  Rail- 

ways. 

609,484 

Aug.      23,  1898 

Fluid-Pressure  Automatic  Brake. 

615,118 

Nov.      29,  1898 

Center  Sill  for  Railroad  Cars. 

624,277 

May        2,  1899 

Electropneumatic  Controlling  System. 

629,943 

Aug.        1,  1899 

Draw  Gear  and  Buffing  Apparatus. 

645,612 

Mar.      20,  1900 

Method  of  Distributing  Energy. 

645,613 

Mar.      20,  1900 

Apparatus  for  Distributing  Energy. 

649,187 

May        8,  1900 

Draw  Gear  and  Buffing  Apparatus. 

672,112 

April      16,  1901 

Draft  Appliances  for  Railroad  Cars. 

672,113 

April      16,  1901 

Car  Coupling. 

672,114 

April      16,  1901 

Draft  Appliance  for  Railway  Cars. 

672,115 

April      16,  1901 

Air  Brake. 

672,116 

April      16,  1901 

Draw  Gear  and  Buffing  Apparatus. 

672,117 

April      16,  1901 

Draw  Gear  and  Buffing  Apparatus. 

672,970 

April     30,  1901 

Rotary  Motor  or  Pump. 

672,971 

April     30,  1901 

Rotary  Pump. 

676,108 

June      11,  1901 

Electric  Railway  System. 

680,824 

Aug.      20,  1901 

Contact  Device  for  Electric  Railways. 

680,825 

Aug.      20,  1901 

Speed-Changing  Gearing. 

680,826 

Aug.      20,  1901 

Means  for  Utilizing  Gaseous  Products  of  Com- 

bustion. 

680,827 

Aug.      20,  1901 

Gas  Producer. 

680,828 

Aug.      20,  1901 

Gas  Producer. 

687,467 

Nov.      26,  1901 

Draft  Appliance  for  Railway  Cars. 

687,468 

Nov.      26,  1901 

Draw  Gear  and  Buffing  Apparatus. 

699,267 

May        6,  1902 

Automatic  Fluid-Pressure  Brake  Apparatus. 

708,107 

Sept.       2,  1902 

Furnace. 

708,747 

Sept.       9,  1902 

Car  Coupling. 

710,385 

Sept.      30,  1902 

Gas  Engine. 

712,626 

Nov.        4,  1902 

Rotary  Engine. 

722,787 

March  17,1903 

Gas  Engine. 

727,039 

May        5,  1903 

Automatic  Fluid-Pressure  Brake  Apparatus. 

727,040 

May       5,  1903 

Automatic  Fluid-Pressure  Brake  Apparatus. 

APPENDIX 


339 


NUMBER 

DATE 

TITLE 

731,726 

June      23,  1903 

Method  of  and  Means  for  Driving  Electric 

Motors. 

739,367 

Sept.     22,  1903 

Gas  Producing  System. 

745,703 

Dec.        1,  1903 

Gas  Engine. 

745,704 

Dec.        1,  1903 

Gas  Engine. 

749,708 

Jan.        12,  1904 

Friction-Spring  Mechanism. 

750,010 

Jan.       19,  1904 

Air  Brake. 

751,587 

Feb.        9,  1904 

Rotary  Fluid  Motor. 

751,588 

Feb.        9,  1904 

Gearing. 

751,589 

Feb.        9,  1904 

Fluid-Pressure  Turbine. 

754,400 

March     8,  1904 

Vertical  Fluid-Pressure  Turbine. 

767,367 

Aug.        9,  1904 

Turbine  Blade. 

772,852 

Oct.       18,  1904 

Fluid-Pressure  Brake. 

773,832 

Nov.        1,  1904 

Controlling  System  for  Electric  Motors. 

773,833 

Nov.        1,  1904 

Controlling  System  for  Electric  Motors. 

787,485 

April      18,  1905 

Fluid-Pressure  Turbine. 

794,761 

July       18,  1905 

Friction  Device. 

799,698 

Sept.      19,  1905 

Friction  Draft  Gear. 

807,003 

Dec.      12,  1905 

Elastic  Fluid  Turbine. 

807,145 

Dec.       12,  1905 

Elastic  Fluid  Turbine. 

807,146 

Dec.       12,  1905 

Elastic  Fluid  Turbine. 

814,339 

March     6,  1906 

Supporting  Structure  for  Trolley  Conductors. 

816,516 

March  27,  1906 

Fluid-Pressure  Turbine. 

833,273 

Oct.       16,  1906 

Metallic  Packing. 

866,171 

Sept.      17,  1907 

Elastic  Fluid  Turbine. 

869,606 

Oct.       29,  1907 

Fluid-Pressure  Brake. 

880,847 

March     3,  1908 

Elastic  Fluid  Turbine. 

883,155 

March  24,  1908 

Shaft  Packing. 

890,951 

June      16,  1908 

Gas  Producer. 

894,927 

Aug.        4,  1908 

Fluid-Pressure  Turbine. 

906,177 

Dec.        8,  1908 

Internal  Combustion  Engine. 

922,827 

May      25,  1909 

Gearing. 

930,906 

Aug.      10,  1909 

Nozzle  Control  for  Elastic  Fluid  Turbines. 

930,907 

Aug.      10,  1909 

Turbine  Blade  and  Vane. 

930,908 

Aug.      10,  1909 

Elastic  Fluid  Turbine. 

935,286 

Sept.     28,  1909 

Elastic  Fluid  Turbine. 

935,343 

Sept.     28,  1909 

Rotary  Engine. 

935,438 

Sept.     28,  1909 

Fluid-Pressure  Turbine. 

935,567 

Sept.     28,  1909 

Elastic  Fluid  Turbine. 

935,568 

Sept.     28,  1909 

Elastic  Fluid  Turbine. 

935,569 

Sept.     28,  1909 

Elastic  Fluid  Turbine. 

941,395 

Nov.      30,  1909 

Elastic  Fluid  Turbine. 

941,396 

Nov.      30,  1909 

Marine  Turbine. 

946,749 

Jan.       18,  1910 

Elastic  Fluid  Turbine. 

953,567 

March  29,  1910 

Elastic  Fluid  Turbine. 

953,568 

March  29,  1910 

Turbine  Blade  and  Vane. 

953,674 

March  29,  1910 

Elastic  Fluid  Turbine. 

340 


APPENDIX 


NUMBER 

DATE 

TITLE 

968,823 

Aug. 

30,  1910 

Propelling  Device. 

969,821 

Sept. 

13,  1910 

Re-entrant  Turbine. 

972,421 

Oct. 

11,  1910 

Turbine. 

976,418 

Nov. 

22,  1910 

Turbine  Blade. 

976,966 

Nov. 

29,  1910 

Method  of  Heating  Air.  - 

976,967 
990,321 

Nov. 
Apr. 

29,  1910 
25,  1911 

Apparatus  for  Heating  Air. 
Turbine  Blading. 

994,810 

June 

13,  1911 

Electrical  Apparatus. 

995,508 

June 

20,  1911 

Elastic  Fluid  Turbine. 

998,820 

July 

25,  1911 

Turbine  Blading. 

998,821 

July 

25,  1911 

Condensing  Turbine.. 

1,014,683 

Jan. 

'  16,  1912 

Turbine  Blade. 

1,031,757 

July 

9,  1912 

Re-entrant  Turbine.' 

1,031,758 
1,031,759 

July 
July 

9,  1912 
9,  1912 

Reduction  Gearing. 
Vehicle  Supporting  Device? 

1,036,043 

Aug. 

20,  1912 

Fluid-Pressure  Device. 

1,050,186 

Jan. 

14,  1913 

Dynamometer. 

1,050,187 

Jan. 

14,  1913 

Blade  Mounting. 

1,061,648 

May 

13,  1913 

Blades. 

1,061,792 

May 

13,  1913 

Elastic  Fluid  Turbine. 

1,073,197 

Sept. 

16,  1913 

Cooling  Means  for  Internal  Combustion  En- 

1,088,387 

Feb. 

24,  1914 

gines. 
Transmission  Gearing. 

1,136,072 

Apr. 

20,  1915 

Reduction  Gearing. 

1,136,189 

Apr. 

20,  1915 

Reduction  Gearing. 

1,142,069 

June 

8,  1915 

Marine  Turbine. 

1,148,206 

July 

27,  1915 

Combustion  Engine. 

1,149,881 

Aug. 

10,  1915 

Transmission  Gearing. 

1,161,095 

Nov. 

23,  1915 

Internal  Combustion  Engine. 

1,185,608 

May 

30,  1916 

Automobile  Air  Spring. 

1,187,212 

June 

13,  1916 

Gland  Packing. 

1,194,687 

Aug. 

15,  1916 

Multistage  Compressor. 

1,195,119 

Aug. 

15,  1916 

Reduction  Gearing. 

1,205,130 

Nov. 

14,  1916 

Turbine  Valve  Mechanism. 

1,208,252 

Dec. 

12,  1916 

Coupling. 

1,209,917 

Dec. 

26,  1916 

Engine  Starter. 

1,209,918 

Dec. 

26,  1916 

Marine  Turbine. 

1,284,006 

Nov. 

5,  1918 

Automatic  Train  Control. 

APPENDIX  341 


GROUP  LISTS— SELECTED  PATENTS 

As  is  explained  above,  the  patents  selected  for  brief  comment 
are  the  most  important  or  interesting.  They  are  such  as  went 
into  general  use,  or  contained  early  suggestions  of  valuable  ideas, 
or  otherwise  affected  their  several  arts. 


AIR  BRAKE 

STRAIGHT  AIR 

No.  88,929,  April  13,  1869.  Steam-Power  Brake.— This  was 
the  first  patent  issued  to  Westinghouse  for  an  air  brake,  as  de- 
scribed in  the  Air-Brake  chapter.  It  formed  a  firm  foundation 
for  the  air-brake  structure  that  was  built  upon  it,  and  its  chief 
characteristics  will  be  found  stated  in  the  opinion  of  Justice 
Swayne  and  Judge  Walker,  of  the  United  States  Court,  in  litiga- 
tion between  the  Westinghouse  Air  Brake  Company  and  the 
Gardner  and  Ransom  Brake  Company.  The  conclusions  of  the 
court  will  be  found  in  the  Air-Brake  chapter. 

No.  115,667,  June  6,  1871.  Steam-Power  Brake  Apparatus.— 
This  patent  proposed  a  device  to  produce  a  vacuum  on  the  non- 
pressure  side  of  the  brake  cylinder  piston  for  the  purpose  of 
quickening  the  release  of  brakes  to  remedy  a  defect  of  the  straight- 
air  system.  It  was  not  used  in  practice,  but  was  one  of  the 
earliest  disclosures  of  the  vacuum-brake  system,  as  by  reissue 
5506,  under  date  of  July  29,  1873,  a  claim  was  allowed  for  the 
operation  of  power  brakes  by  atmospheric  pressure. 

No.  122,544,  January  9,  1872.  Improvement  in  Exhaust 
Valves  for  Steam  and  Air  Engines. — This  patent  is  for  a  valve 
device,  to  be  used  in  connection  with  the  straight-air  system  to 
provide  an  escape  of  pressure  directly  from  the  brake  cylinder  to 
the  atmosphere  when  it  is  desired  to  release  brakes  so  that  the 
time  of  release  will  be  reduced  as  compared  with  that  required  to 
permit  the  air  to  escape  through  the  train  pipe  and  out  of  the 
engineer's  valve  on  the  locomotive.  But  few  of  them  were  put 
in  service. 


342  APPENDIX 

AUTOMATIC 

Nos.  124,404  and  124,405,  March  5,  1872.  Improvement  in 
Steam-Power  Air  Brakes  and  Signals. — These  patents  for  the 
first  time  reveal  the  basic  invention  of  the  automatic  brake  and 
also  the  system  of  train  signalling  that  subsequently  became 
standard  on  passenger  trains  of  this  country.  The  following  ex- 
tract from  specification  of  Patent  No.  124,404  clearly  shows  the 
inventor's  conception  of  the  problem  and  indicates  the  means 
proposed  for  its  solution.  "In  the  steam-power  air-brake  appa- 
ratus heretofore  in  use  a  single  line  of  pipe  conveys  the  com- 
pressed air  from  the  main  reservoir  on  the  locomotive  to  each 
brake  cylinder.  If  this  pipe  becomes  accidentally  broken  at  any 
point  it  is,  of  course,  useless  for  braking  purposes  from  that  point 
to  the  rear  end  of  the  train.  For  this  and  other  reasons  I  have 
devised  an  apparatus  consisting  in  part  of  a  double  line  of  brake 
pipes,  which  may  be  cooperative  or  independently  operative  in 
braking  at  the  pleasure  of  the  engineer,  and  which  as  a  separate 
device  I  have  included  in  a  separate  application.  The  improve- 
ment herein  described  relates  to  the  same  class  of  apparatus,  and 
consists  in  the  features  of  construction  and  combination  substan- 
tially as  hereinafter  claimed,  by  which,  first,  an  air  reservoir, 
auxiliary  to  or  independent  of  the  main  reservoir,  is  combined  on 
each  car  with  the  brake  cylinder;  second,  by  means  of  a  cock  or 
cocks,  with  suitable  ports,  such  additional  reservoir,  when  used 
as  an  auxiliary  reservoir,  is  charged  with  compressed  ah*  from  one 
brake  pipe,  and  the  brake  cylinder  from  the  other,  such  pipes  in 
such  use  being  interchangeable  or  not,  at  pleasure;  third,  and  by 
means  of  a  single  cock  with  suitable  ports  either  brake  pipe  may 
be  used  for  charging  the  reservoir  and  the  other  for  operating  the 
brakes;  fourth,  when  a  car  becomes  disconnected  from  the  train 
by  accident  or  otherwise,  a  port  or  ports  will  thereby  be  opened 
in  a  communicating  pipe  or  pipes,  by  which  the  air  from  such 
auxiliary  reservoir  will  be  admitted  freely  to  the  brake  cylinder, 
so  as  automatically  to  apply  the  brakes;  and,  fifth,  the  conductor 
and  engineer  may  communicate  signals  or  orders  to  each  other 
by  the  use  of  the  brake  pipes  and  the  compressed  air." 

No.  138,827,  May  13,  1873.  Valve  Devices  for  Steam  and  Air 
Brakes. — Describes  the  first  form  of  triple  valve  experimentally 


APPENDIX  343 

tried  in  road  service,  but  as  it  could  not  graduate  the  brake  pres- 
sure it  was  not  introduced  into  general  service. 

No.  141,685,  August  12, 1873.  Valve  Devices  for  Fluid  Brakes. 
— Describes  a  triple  valve  capable  of  graduating  the  brake- 
cylinder  pressure,  and  was  the  first  form  supplied  for  service  use. 

No.  149,901,  April  21,  1874.  Valves  for  Fluid-Brake  Pipes  — 
Improvement  on  Patent  No.  141,685.  Valves  constructed  of  the 
design  shown  in  this  patent  succeeded  those  of  Patent  No.  141,685 
and  were  largely  used  in  service. 

No.  156,322,  October  27,  1874.  Discharge  Valves  for  Fluid 
Brakes. — The  device  shown  in  this  patent  was  intended  to  provide 
for  the  automatic  application  of  the  brakes  in  case  of  a  derailment 
of  the  car.  It  was  included  among  the  devices  furnished  with  the 
automatic  brake  when  it  was  first  introduced,  but  as  a  result  of 
experience  its  use  was  discontinued  because  of  its  undesired  opera- 
tion, due  to  its  being  operated  by  flying  missiles  when  the  train 
was  in  motion. 

No.  168,359,  October  5,  1875.  Air  Valve  for  Power  Brakes.— 
An  important  improvement  in  the  automatic  brake,  in  which  a 
slide  valve  and  piston  is  substituted  for  poppet  valves  and  dia- 
phragms used  in  preceding  structures.  It  was  also  the  first  triple 
valve  with  a  normally  open  exhaust  port. 

No.  172,064,  January  11,  1876.  Air-Brake  Valve.— An  im- 
provement in  triple-valve  construction  in  which  a  limited  amount 
of  lost  motion  between  the  valve  stem  and  the  slide  valve  is  the 
important  feature.  This  particular  feature  is  an  important  ele- 
ment in  all  subsequent  triple-valve  constructions. 

No.  214,602,  April  22,  1879.  Cocks  for  Fluid-Pressure  Brake. 
— This  invention  was  an  important  contribution  to  the  improve- 
ment of  air  brakes,  as  it  is  the  first  engineers'  valve  arranged  to 
store  pressure  in  the  main  reservoir  in  excess  of  the  brake-pipe 
pressure,  to  facilitate  the  release  of  brakes.  It  is  of  particular 
importance  in  trains  of  considerable  length  and  the  principle  of 
excess  pressure  has  ever  since  been  employed  in  all  operative  air- 
brake systems. 

No.  217,838,  July  22,  1879.  Automatic  Brake  Relief  Valve. 
— The  importance  of  this  patent  is  that  it  contains  suggestions 
subsequently  embodied  in  the  quick-action  brake.  In  the  form 
illustrated  in  the  patent  it  was  not  a  practically  operative  device. 


344  APPENDIX 

No.  220,556,  October  14,  1879.  Regulating  Valve  for  Auto- 
matic Brakes. — Illustrates  the  last  important  improvement  in  the 
plain  triple  valve,  and  its  purpose  is  described  in  the  specification 
as  follows:  "It  is  important  in  such  device  that  the  valve  which 
governs  the  flow  of  air  or  other  fluid  shall  move  not  only  with  great 
certainty  to  any  desired  position,  but  also  shall  move  with  slight 
variations  of  pressure  on  the  piston,  so  that  the  application  of  the 
brakes  with  any  desired  power,  and  their  ready  release,  may  be 
quickly  and  easily  effected  at  the  pleasure  of  the  engineer."  With 
this  improvement  added  to  the  then  existing  brake  system  the 
graduation  of  brake  pressure  was  greatly  improved. 

No.  235,922,  December  28,  1880.  Fluid-Pressure  Brake.— The 
first  patent  to  describe  the  combination  of  the  brake-cylinder 
auxiliary  reservoir  and  triple  valve  in  a  single  structure;  created 
the  general  type  of  freight-car  brake  that  has,  since  its  invention, 
been  employed  almost  exclusively  in  freight-car  service. 

No.  270,528,  January  9,  1883.  Air-Brake  Pressure  Regulator. 
— Describes  what  is  technically  termed  a  pressure-retaining  valve, 
which  is  a  device  connected  with  the  exhaust  port  of  the  triple 
valve,  so  arranged  as  to  retain  a  predetermined  pressure  in  the 
brake  cylinder  when  the  triple  valve  is  in  position  for  recharging 
auxiliary  reservoirs  in  descending  long  and  heavy  grades.  On 
level  track  it  is  caused  to  be  inoperative  by  opening  a  direct  pas- 
sage from  the  exhaust  port  of  the  triple  valve  to  the  atmosphere. 
The  addition  of  this  device  was  necessary  to  make  the  automatic 
brake  available  for  freight  service.  It,  therefore,  has  a  very  im- 
portant place  in  the  patent  record  of  the  air-brake  art. 

QUICK    ACTION 

No.  360,070,  March  29,  1887,  and  No.  376,837,  January  24, 
1888.  Fluid-Pressure  Automatic-Brake  Mechanism. — These  pat- 
ents disclose  the  invention  of  the  quick-acting  brake.  The  speci- 
fication of  Patent  No.  360,070  clearly  states  the  difficulties  to  be 
overcome  and  the  general  principles  of  the  method  employed  to 
do  it.  The  detailed  construction  shown  in  Patent  No.  376,837 
was  embodied  in  the  standard  triple  valve  thereafter  for  both 
freight  and  passenger  service.  Next  to  the  original  invention  of 
the  automatic  brake,  the  development  and  introduction  of  the 
quick-acting  triple  valve  is  the  most  important  event  in  the  his- 


APPENDIX  345 

"tory  of  power  braking,  for  it  resulted  in  the  general. use  of  power 
brakes  in  freight  service  on  long  trains. 

No.  448,827,  March  24,  1891.  Air  Brake.— A  quick-acting 
brake  in  which  the  train-pipe  vent  valve  is  not  combined  with 
the  triple  valve;  a  variation  of  the  original  quick-acting  triple 
valve;  not  put  into  practical  service. 

No.  538,001,  April  23,  1895.  Quick-Action  Valve  for  Air 
Brakes. — This  patent  describes  a  type  of  quick-acting  triple  valve 
in  which  the  quick-acting  feature  is  differentiated  from  previous 
patents  in  respect  to  the  fact  that  its  operation  depended  upon  a 
relatively  quick  movement  of  the  triple- valve  piston,  while  in 
previous  types  the  same  result  was  obtained  through  a  longer 
travel  of  the  piston  in  emergency  applications. 

ELECTBOPNEUMATIC 

No.  243,417,  June  28,  1881.  Fluid-Pressure  Brake.— This  is 
believed  to  be  the  first  patent  issued  for  an  air  brake  in  which  the 
air  valves  are  electrically  actuated.  Improved  and  expanded  by 
other  additions,  it  is  now  largely  used  in  some  classes  of  railway 
service.  The  general  principles  revealed  in  this  patent  were 
largely  used  in  electropneumatic  switching  and  signalling. 

ACCESSORIES 

No.  117,841,  August  8,  1871.  Steam-Power  Air-Brake  De- 
vices.— The  purpose  of  this  invention  is  described  in  the  following 
quotation  from  the  specification.  "In  applying  car  brakes  it  is 
desirable  that  the  movement  of  the  brake  shoes  at  first  be  rapid, 
so  that  they  shall  engage  the  wheels  as  quickly  as  possible,  and 
after  they  have  engaged  the  wheels  that  they  be  pressed  against 
them  with  great  force.  Before  they  touch  the  wheels  they  offer 
no  great  resistance.  After  they  engage  the  wheels  their  motion 
is  little,  but  the  resistance  is  great."  The  form  in  which  the  in- 
vention was  patented  was  used  to  a  limited  extent  in  the  early 
days  of  the  application  of  air  brakes,  but  was  abandoned  as  not 
satisfactorily  accomplishing  the  desired  result.  In  a  modified  and 
improved  form  it  is  now  an  essential  feature  of  what  is  technically 
called  the  "empty  and  load  brake,"  one  of  the  latest  air-brake 
developments. 


346  APPENDIX 

No.  134,178,  December  24,  1872.  Steam  and  Air  Brakes.— In 
this  patent  means  are  proposed  for  automatically  compensating 
for  the  wearing  away  of  brake  shoes,  which  must  otherwise  be 
done  by  hand  adjustment.  In  improved  forms,  which  embody 
the  basic  idea  exhibited  in  this  patent,  many  thousands  of  these 
devices  are  employed,  and  are  practically  standard  in  passenger 
service. 

No.  136,631,  March  11,  1873.  Steam-Power  Brake  Coup- 
lings.— The  purpose  of  this  invention  was  to  remove  the  necessity 
for  a  double  line  of  pipes  under  the  cars  due  to  the  type  of  coup- 
ling theretofore  used.  The  following  quotation  from  the  specifica- 
tion describes  the  condition  to  be  remedied  and  the  method  pro- 
posed in  the  patent  for  doing  it:  "In  the  patent  granted  to  me, 
August  8,  1871,  No.  117,841,  provision  is  made  for  the  reversal  of 
a  car  without  changing  the  relative  arrangement  of  the  couplings. 
This  is  done  by  branching  the  air-brake  pipe  at  or  near  each  end 
of  the  car,  and  attaching  a  male  coupling  to  one  branch  and  a 
female  coupling  to  the  other,  as  therein  described.  In  my  present 
improvement  I  accomplish  the  same  useful  result  by  making  a 
coupling  wherein  each  half  shall  have  a  male  and  female  part  to 
couple  into  or  with  the  female  and  male  parts  of  the  next  coupling. 
With  couplings  so  made  there  will  be  no  occasion  to  branch  the 
pipes,  and  the  half  coupling  on  either  end  of  either  car  will  couple 
on  to  any  other  half  coupling  on  the  train."  Couplings  of  this 
form  were  experimentally  used  but  did  not  become  a  part  of 
standard  apparatus. 

No.  142,600,  September  9,  1873.  Railroad  Car  Brakes.— This 
is  one  of  the  earliest  patents,  in  which  the  use  of  metal  in  brake 
beams  is  proposed,  and  it  also  includes  improved  methods  of  sup- 
port and  balancing.  It  was  tried  experimentally,  and  ultimately 
the  principles  embodied  in  this  patent  became  general  in  practice. 

No.  144,005,  October  28,  1873.  Locomotive  Air  Brakes.— 
This  is  the  first  of  Westinghouse's  inventions  describing  the  ap- 
plication of  power  brakes  to  driving  wheels  of  locomotives.  The 
form  here  shown  was  applied  to  a  limited  extent. 

No.  147,212,  February  3,  1874.  Car  Brakes.— An  important 
improvement  in  details  of  construction  on  Patent  No.  144,005,  for 
limited  space  between  driving  wheels. 

No.  149,902,  April  21, 1874.    Car  Brakes.— This  patent  covers 


APPENDIX  347 

important  improvements  in  brake-beam  construction,  whereby 
wooden  brake  beams  were  sufficiently  reinforced  with  metal  truss 
rods  so  that  they  were  capable  of  meeting  the  stresses  due  to  the 
application  of  power  brakes.  Used  to  a  very  considerable  extent 
in  passenger  service. 

No.  157,951,  December  22, 1874.  Pipe  Couplings. — A  very  im- 
portant invention,  and  an  improvement  on  Patent  No.  136,631, 
by  means  of  which  the  practical  necessity  for  double  lines  of  pipe 
and  double  hose  couplings  was  avoided.  It  was  immediately 
placed  in  service  and  has  remained  the  standard  hose-coupling 
device  for  air-brake  purposes. 

No.  159,533,  February  9,  1875.  Pneumatic  Pump.— This  in- 
vention describes  a  steam-driven  air  compressor  in  which  ah-  is 
compressed  serially  or  in  stages,  thereby  effecting  a  substantial 
economy  in  the  cost  of  compression.  The  application  of  this 
principle  was  delayed  for  many  years,  but  it  is  now  practically 
standard  for  steam-driven  air-brake  compressors. 

No.  180,179,  July  25,  1876.  Air  Brake  and  Signal— This  is 
for  a  system  of  train  signals  employing  compressed  air  as  the 
medium  of  communication,  and  the  specification  states  that  the 
object  of  the  invention  is  to  enable  the  conductor  to  employ  com- 
pressed air  in  communicating  signals  to  the  engineer.  In  a  some- 
what modified  form  it  has  come  into  general  use  on  passenger  ser- 
vice in  America. 

No.  214,336,  April  15, 1879.  Coupling  Valve.— This  patent  is 
the  first  to  describe  the  combination  of  a  hose  coupling  with  a 
valve  arrangement  controlling  the  flow  of  air  through  the  train 
pipe  in  which  the  valves  are  automatically  opened  when  the 
couplings  are  united,  and  closed  when  they  are  manually  sep- 
arated by  partially  rotating  the  two  halves  of  the  coupling  with 
reference  to  each  other.  The  valves,  however,  remain  open  if  the 
couplings  are  separated  by  pulling  them  apart,  as  in  the  case  of  a 
parted  train,  thus  providing  for  the  escape  of  the  air  from  the 
train  pipe,  causing  the  automatic  application  of  the  brakes.  The 
successful  employment  of  this  device  would  dispense  with  the 
train  pipe  cocks  that  are  otherwise  required  at  each  end  of  the 
car.  Many  variations  embodying  the  basic  idea  have  been  pro- 
posed, but  no  satisfactory  substitute  for  a  train-pipe  cock  has 
been  found. 


348  APPENDIX 

No.  214,337,  April  15,  1879.  Automatic  Brake  Regulator.— 
This  patent  is  of  importance  as  showing  one  form  of  the  appli- 
ance that  was  used  in  the  Galton-Westinghouse  tests,  described 
in  the  Air-Brake  chapter.  The  following  quotation  from  the 
specification  describes  the  object  of  the  invention:  "To  ascertain 
if  possible  the  laws  governing  the  action  of  the  various  forces 
brought  into  play  by  the  use  of  brakes,  I  had  made  a  special 
brake-vehicle  fitted  with  self-recording  apparatus  to  register  at 
each  instant,  first,  the  force  with  which  the  wheels  were  pressed 
by  the  brake  shoe;  second,  the  amount  of  resistance  or  drag  be- 
tween the  shoes  and  wheels;  third,  the  weight  with  which  the 
wheels  pressed  the  rails;  fourth,  the  exact  rate  of  speed  of  the 
vehicle;  fifth,  the  rate  of  rotation  of  the  braked  wheels."  The 
remarkable  results  obtained  are  set  forth  in  the  text. 

No.  240,062,  April  12,  1881.  Fluid-Pressure  Regulator  for 
Automatic  Brakes. — This  patent  is  for  automatically  regulating 
the  air  pressure  by  controlling  the  flow  of  steam  to  the  air  com- 
pressor, resulting  in  the  automatic  maintenance  of  any  desired 
air  pressure.  This  device  was  at  once  put  into  practical  opera- 
tion, and  in  one  form  or  another  it  forms  a  part  of  the  existing 
brake  system. 

No.  401,916,  April  23,  1889.  Engineer's  Brake  Valve.— This 
patent  describes  a  very  important  improvement  in  the  engineer's 
operating  brake  valve  set  forth  in  the  following  quotation  from 
the  specification.  "The  object  of  our  invention  is,  primarily,  to 
provide  for  such  gradual  opening  and  closure  of  the  valve  which 
controls  the  discharge  of  air  from  the  brake  pipe  as  to  cause  a 
substantial  equalization  of  pressure  in  the  brake  pipe  and  uni- 
form application  of  the  brakes  throughout  the  length  of  the  train, 
and  obviate  the  liability  to  release  the  brakes  on  the  forward 
cars,  in  long  trains,  which  has  heretofore  been  found  to  be  induced 
by  an  inequality  of  pressure  in  the  brake  pipe  occasioned  by  the 
quick  release  of  a  considerable  quantity  of  air  and  the  sudden 
closure  of  the  discharge  valve  thereafter,  and  from  which  the 
breaking  of  the  train  into  two  or  more  sections  has  sometimes  re- 
sulted." The  gradual  increase  in  length  of  trains  rendered  some 
mechanism  of  this  general  character  necessary  for  satisfactory 
brake  operation. 

No-  415,595,  November  19,  1889.    Brake  Apparatus  for  Six- 


APPENDIX  349 

Wheeled  Trucks. — The  first  patent  to  describe  a  method  of  apply- 
ing brakes  to  all  of  the  wheels  of  a  six-wheeled  truck.  A  practical 
solution  of  the  problem  was  reached  with  great  difficulty,  owing 
to  the  contracted  space  available  for  the  application  of  the  brake- 
shoes  to  the  center  pair  of  wheels.  It  was,  however,  accomplished 
substantially  in  accordance  with  the  method  proposed  in  this 
patent,  and  it  is  now  in  universal  use. 

No.  441,209,  November  25, 1890.  Compound  Pumping  Engine. 
— This  is  a  patent  for  a  compound  direct-acting  air  compressor, 
in  which  both  the  steam  and  air  elements  are  compounded.  A 
substantial  economy  in  steam  consumption  was  effected  by  this 
invention,  and  compressors  of  the  general  design  shown  in  the 
patent  are  in  general  use. 

FRICTION  DRAFT  GEAR 

No.  391,997,  October  30,  1888.  Buffing  Apparatus.— This  is 
the  basic  friction  draft-gear  patent,  and  the  following  quotation 
from  the  specification  clearly  states  its  object  and  the  method  of 
accomplishment.  "My  present  invention  relates  to  certain  im- 
provements in  buffing  apparatus  designed  to  be  interposed  be- 
tween a  stationary  and  movable  body,  or  between  two  bodies 
approaching  each  other  either  from  opposite  directions  or  be- 
tween two  bodies  moving  in  the  same  direction,  but  at  different 
rates  of  speed;  and  the  invention  has  for  its  object  a  construction 
of  buffing  apparatus,  whether  applied  to  the  draw  bars  or  buffers 
of  cars,  or  for  other  purposes,  wherein  a  frictional  resistance  is 
employed,  either  in  combination  with  a  spring  resistance  or  alone, 
for  the  purpose  of  modifying  the  momentum  and  impact  of  the 
meeting  or  separating  bodies."  Several  succeeding  patents  (which 
included  the  generic  invention)  for  improvements  and  modifica- 
tions were  issued  to  Westinghouse  covering  the  various  forms 
experimented  with,  leading  to  a  successful  commercial  product. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  in  the  latest  commercial  develop- 
ment of  the  friction  draft  gear  by  the  Westinghouse  Air  Brake 
Company,  in  which  much  greater  frictional  resistance  is  provided 
than  is  found  in  previous  constructions,  the  detailed  construction 
is  substantially  the  same  as  that  shown  in  the  original  patent,  the 
principal  difference  being  an  increased  thickness  of  the  friction 
plates  in  the  later  construction. 


350  APPENDIX 

HYDRAULIC   DRAFT  GEAR 

No.  649,187,  May  8,  1900,  and  No.  672,117,  April  16,  1901. 
Draw  Gear  and  Buffing  Apparatus. — These  patents  are  for  draft- 
gear  devices  in  which  hydraulic  resistance  is  substituted  for  fric- 
tion resistance,  but  these  constructions  did  not  prove  to  be  an 
operative  improvement  upon  the  friction  type  and  were  not  put 
into  practical  service. 

No.  708,747,  September  9,  1902.  Car  Coupling.— This  patent 
covers  an  invention  of  great  practical  value  in  the  operation  of 
electrically  propelled  railway  trains.  The  invention  was  impor- 
tant, and  it  has  gone  into  large  use.  It  is  described  in  the  text. 

ELECTRICAL 

ELECTRICAL  DISTRIBUTION 

No.  373,035,  November  8,  1887.  System  of  Electrical  Distri- 
bution.— An  alternating-current  distribution  system  in  which 
direct  currents  are  locally  derived  from  alternating  for  charging 
storage  batteries  to  be  held  in  reserve  against  emergencies.  An 
alternating-current  motor  driven  from  the  main  circuit  is  provided 
with  a  commutator  through  which  direct  currents  are  delivered  to 
local  storage  batteries,  which  in  turn  may  at  will  be  connected 
with  the  supply  circuit  when  required. 

No.  373,036,  November  8,  1887.  Automatic  Circuit-Controll- 
ing Apparatus  for  Systems  of  Electrical  Distribution. — Means  are 
provided  for  interchanging  the  connections  of  the  supply  circuit, 
so  that  in  case  of  interruption  of  one  of  the  main  lines,  the  appa- 
ratus being  supplied  is  automatically  connected  with  another 
main  line. 

No.  524,749,  August  21,  1894.  System  of  Electrical  Distribu- 
tion.— The  organization  of  circuits  is  such  as  to  enable  the  cen- 
tral stations  to  connect  line  transformers  as  required,  and  thus 
avoid  unnecessary  leakage  through  the  primary  coils.  Fluid-pres- 
sure devices  operated  from  the  central  stations  are  provided  for 
controlling  the  connections  of  the  primary  coils  of  the  various 
transformers. 


APPENDIX  351 


TRANSFORMERS 

No.  342,553,  May  25,  1886.  Induction  Coil.— The  patent,  the 
application  for  which  was  filed  February  16,  1886,  was  the  fore- 
runner of  the  modern  type  of  transformer,  in  which  the  coils  are 
essentially  enclosed  by  a  laminated  iron  core.  The  patent  lays 
stress  upon  the  importance  of  bringing  a  large  amount  of  lami- 
nated iron  into  close  proximity  to  the  primary  and  secondary  coils 
without  undue  heating  of  the  core.  In  one  form  H-shaped  plates, 
insulated  from  each  other,  are  arranged  in  a  pile  and  bolted  to- 
gether. The  coils  are  then  wound  upon  the  central  portion,  partly 
filling  the  spaces  between  the  projecting  arms,  which  are  after- 
ward closed  outside  the  coils  by  iron  plates  or  laminae,  thus  com- 
pletely enclosing  the  main  body  of  the  coils.  The  construction 
described  in  this  patent  led  up  to  the  modern  form  devised  by 
Stanley  and  later  improved  by  Albert  Schmid,  in  which  E-shaped 
plates  are  employed,  permitting  the  separate  winding  and  insula- 
tion of  the  coils,  the  enclosing  core  thereafter  being  built  upon 
the  coils. 

No.  366,362,  July  12,  1887.  Electrical  Converter.— This 
patent  is  well  known  to  the  art  as  the  Westinghouse  Oil-Cooled 
Transformer  patent.  It  has  been  the  subject  of  long-continued 
litigation,  having  been  repeatedly  sustained  as  covering  the  mod- 
ern oil-cooled  transformer.  From  the  opinion  of  the  Court  of 
Appeals  of  the  Second  Circuit,  in  what  is  known  as  the  "Union 
Carbide  Suit"  the  following  is  quoted:  "The  practical  result  of 
the  invention  in  suit,  as  testified  to  by  complainant's  experts,  was 
to  so  increase  the  capacity  of  converters  that,  while  a  dry  con- 
verter cooled  by  the  natural  circulation  of  air  is  limited  to  10  kilo- 
watts, the  oil-insulated  converters  of  the  patent  in  suit  are  com- 
mercially serviceable  up  to  500  kilowatts."  This  early  invention 
proved  to  be  of  great  utility  and  has  been  extensively  used  in  large 
transformers. 

GENERATORS  AND   MOTORS 

No.  582,494,  May  11,  1897.  Core  for  Electrical  Machines.— 
In  the  early  construction  of  laminated  cores  for  electric  machines 
the  laminae  were  clamped  together  by  end  plates  secured  by  trans- 
verse bolts.  To  lessen  the  labor  and  expense  and  other  disadvan- 


352  APPENDIX 

tages  of  this  construction,  Westinghouse  provided  a  cylindrical 
support  having  a  flange  or  plate  at  one  end.  The  core  plates 
are  built  up  about  the  central  support  and  pressed  together  be- 
tween the  permanent  flange  or  plate  and  a  detachable  plate  sur- 
rounding the  other  end  of  the  support,  the  second  plate  being 
then  secured  in  position  by  an  annular  fastening  ring,  or  key,  lo- 
cated partially  in  a  groove  in  the  casting  and  partially  in  a 
groove  in  the  plate.  It  is  proposed  to  form  the  fastening  ring  of 
soft  metal  which  could  be  poured  through  openings  into  the 
grooves.  This  may  be  melted  out  in  case  it  is  desired  to  disas- 
semble the  parts.  The  fundamental  idea  was  improved  upon  by 
Albert  Schmid,  who  devised  an  ingenious  plan  for  inserting  an 
annular  soring-ring  in  the  registering  grooves. 

METERS 

No.  383,678,  May  29,  1888.  Electric  Meter.— The  invention  of 
this  patent  was  designed  to  supply  the  then  pressing  need  for  an 
alternating-current  meter.  Upon  a  disk  driven  at  a  constant 
speed  there  rests  a  spheroidical  roller  adapted  to  be  tipped  in  pro- 
portion to  the  amount  of  current  to  be  measured.  With  no  cur- 
rent flowing  the  greatest  diameter  of  the  roller  is  coincident  with 
the  center  of  rotation  of  the  disk,  so  that  no  rolling  movement  is 
communicated  to  it.  When  current  to  be  measured  flows  it  acts 
to  tip  the  roller  so  as  to  bring  its  point  of  bearing  upon  the  disk 
aw'ay  from  the  center  a  distance  dependent  upon  the  amount  of 
current  flow.  As  the  point  of  contact  between  the  disk  and  the 
roller  is  thus  changed  the  roller  is  revolved  upon  its  axis  at  a  rate 
proportional  to  the  current  flowing,  and  a  clock  train  records  the 
revolutions.  This  device,  improved,  as  shown  in  a  joint  patent 
of  Westinghouse  and  Lange  No.  383,680,  gave  great  promise  of 
meeting  the  serious  needs  of  the  art  at  the  time,  and  would  have 
doubtless  gone  into  extensive  use  but  for  the  appearance  of  the 
Shallenberger  meter  referred  to  in  the  text. 

ARC  LAMPS 

No.  428,435,  May  20,  1890.  Alternating-Current  Arc  Lamp. 
— In  the  development  of  alternating-current  arc  lamps  it  was 
found  advantageous  in  many  instances  to  use  flat  carbons.  This 
patent  sets  forth  the  advantage  of  making  the  upper  carbon 


APPENDIX  353 

thicker  than  the  lower  one  for  the  purpose  of  more  effectively 
projecting  the  light  downwardly. 

ELECTRIC  RAILWAYS  AND  LOCOMOTIVES 

No.  404,139,  May  28,  1889.  System  of  Electrical  Distribution. 
— The  object  of  the  invention  is  to  utilize  the  advantage  of  high- 
potential  alternating  currents  for  transmitting  energy  to  a  loco- 
motive operated  by  low-potential  continuous  currents.  The  loco- 
motive carries  a  current  rectifier,  such  as  a  synchronous  alter- 
nating-current motor,  provided  with  a  rectifying  commutator. 
The  energy  derived  from  the  alternating  source  is  delivered  as 
continuous  current  to  direct-current  propelling  motors.  Potential- 
reducing  transformers  arranged  along  the  railway  serve  to  trans- 
form the  transmitted  high-potential  alternating  current  to  such 
low-potential  current  as  may  be  conveniently  delivered  to  the  loco- 
motive and  then  changed  to  direct  current.  This  patent  appears 
to  have  been  a  pioneer  in  the  art  of  driving  direct-current  locomo- 
tives with  energy  transmitted  from  a  distance  in  the  form  of  alter- 
nating currents,  as  is  indicated  by  the  following  sample  claims: 
"The  combination  of  an  alternate-current  electric  generator,  a 
converter  reducing  the  potential  of  the  currents  delivered  thereby, 
a  rectifying  commutator  rendering  continuous  such  reduced  cur- 
rents, and  an  electric  railway  supplied  by  such  continuous  cur- 
rents. The  combination  of  an  electric  locomotor,  a  current-recti- 
fier upon  said  locomotor,  a  source  of  alternating  electric  currents, 
and  means  for  connecting  said  source  with  said  rectifier." 

No.  450,652,  April  21,  1891.  Electric  Locomotor.— The  object 
of  this  invention  is  to  increase  the  tractive  effort  of  an  electric 
locomotive  truck.  One  end  of  the  motor  frame  is  sleeved  upon 
the  axle  of  one  pair  of  wheels  of  a  four-wheel  truck  to  which  the 
motor  is  geared;  the  other  end  of  the  frame  is  supported  upon  an 
axle  carrying  friction  wheels  serving  to  couple  the  driven  truck 
wheels  with  the  remaining  pair  of  truck  wheels.  As  the  torque 
of  the  motor  increases,  the  friction  wheels  bear  down  more  heavily 
upon  the  driving  and  driven  wheels,  thereby  insuring  greater 
driving  effort  to  be  exerted  by  the  wheels  not  directly  driven  by 
the  motor. 

No.  550,467,  November  26,  1895.  Electric  Fluid  Locomotor.— 
This  is  a  fluid  variable-speed  and  reversing  gear  for  transmitting 


354  APPENDIX 

the  power  of  a  constant-speed  driving  electric  motor  to  the  driv- 
ing wheels  of  a  locomotor,  and  permitting  the  electric  motor  to 
be  driven  always  in  a  given  direction  and  at  a  constant  speed. 
For  this  purpose  a  rotary  eccentric-piston  fluid  pump,  driven  by 
a  constant-speed  electric  motor,  is  included  in  a  closed  fluid  cir- 
cuit, containing  similar  eccentric-piston  fluid  motors,  which,  in 
turn,  are  connected  with  the  driving  wheels  of  the  locomotor. 
By  varying  the  eccentricity  of  the  fluid  pumps  and  fluid  motors 
any  speed  and  direction  is  readily  obtainable.  Other  than  elec- 
tric motors  may  be  used  as  the  source  of  power,  and  the  applica- 
tions of  the  invention  extend  to  other  uses  than  driving  locomotors, 
as  evidenced,  for  instance,  by  the  following  sample  claim:  "The 
combination  of  a  rotary  pump  driven  by  any  source  of  power  and 
a  hydraulic  motor  connected  to  the  pump  by  a  liquid  circuit  and 
a  means  for  altering  the  eccentricity  of  both  pump  and  motor, 
substantially  as  described."  A  system  of  this  general  character 
was  employed  for  running  a  freight  elevator  installed  in  the  elec- 
tric company's  works  at  East  Pittsburgh,  where  it  operated  suc- 
cessfully for  a  number  of  years. 

No.  579,526,  March  23,  1897.  Electropneumatic  Locomotive. 
— This  invention  was  designed  to  relieve  a  driving  motor  from 
undue  strain  when  starting  a  load  from  a  state  of  rest.  It  pro- 
vides a  reserve  source  of  energy  in  the  form  of  compressed  air, 
which  may  be  availed  of  through  a  compressed-air  motor  to  de- 
liver power  to  the  driving  wheels.  The  compressed-air  reservoir 
may  be  charged  while  the  train  is  running  by  reverse  action  of 
the  compressed-air  motors. 

No.  624,277,  May  2,  1899.  Electropneumatic  Controlling 
System.  No.  773,832,  November  1,  1904.  Controlling  System 
for  Electric  Motors.  No.  773,833,  November  1,  1904.  Westing- 
house  and  Aspinwall.  Controlling  System  for  Electric  Motors. — 
These  patents  cover  the  electropneumatic  multiple-unit  controll- 
ing system  commonly  known  as  the  "drum  control,"  which,  with 
minor  changes,  is  still  largely  used  in  electric  railway  service. 
The  following  quotation  from  the  specification  of  Patent  No. 
624,277  well  serves  as  a  general  description  of  the  field  of  the 
invention:  "My  present  invention  also  embodies  mechanism  ac- 
tuated by  fluid  pressure  for  operating  the  controller,  or  each  of 
the  controllers,  if  several  are  in  use;  but  instead  of  employing 


APPENDIX  355 

special  train  pipes  and  manually  operated  valves,  I  propose  to 
supply  the  fluid  pressure  from  either  the  brake  train  pipe  or  from 
a  main  reservoir  on  the  same  car  with  the  controller,  and  to  actu- 
ate and  control  the  necessary  valves  by  means  of  an  electro- 
magnetic system,  the  arrangement  being  such  that  the  corre- 
sponding valves  of  each  controller-operating  mechanism  in  service 
may  be  simultaneously  operated  from  any  selected  point  on  any 
car  in  the  train,  the  combination  and  arrangement  being  such, 
moreover,  that  a  single  car  may  be  operated  with  the  same  facil- 
ity, the  only  couplings  necessary  in  addition  to  those  employed 
in  trains  controlled  by  air  brakes  and  heretofore  in  use  being 
those  for  the  electric  conductors,  which  carry  the  necessary  cur- 
rent for  energizing  the  electromagnets  of  the  system."  This  pat- 
ent contains  twelve  sheets  of  drawings,  illustrating  with  remark- 
able care  the  details  of  the  various  mechanical  parts  of  the  appa- 
ratus; in  fact,  they  are  essentially  working  drawings.  The  patent 
is  replete  with  ingenious  devices  and  affords  an  excellent  illustra- 
tion of  the  fertility  of  mind  of  Westinghouse  in  devising  simple 
mechanisms  for  accomplishing  complicated  interrelated  mechani- 
cal movements. 

No.  645,612,  March  20,  1900.  Method  of  Distributing  Electri- 
cal Energy. — This  patent  sets  forth  a  comprehensive  plan  for  dis- 
tributing power  for  electric  railways  over  considerable  distances, 
the  power  being  supplied  from  widely  separated  power  plants. 
To  lessen  the  considerable  losses  of  energy  from  various  causes, 
it  is  proposed  to  supply  different  portions  of  the  circuit  only 
during  the  times  they  are  called  upon  to  deliver  current.  Gas 
engines  are  located  at  numerous  sub-stations,  these  being  arranged 
to  be  started  quickly  when  required  to  supplement  the  power. 
The  gas  may  be  distributed  through  a  main  gas-supply  line. 

STEAM   ENGINES 

No.  50,759,  October  31,  1865.  Rotary  Steam  Engine.— Inter- 
esting as  the  first  patent  issued  to  Westinghouse,  which  was  fol- 
lowed by  many  others  related  to  the  same  subject.  It  was  a 
phase  of  the  engineering  art  that  interested  him  throughout  his 
entire  life. 

No.  131,380,  September  17,  1872.  Improvement  in  Balanced 
Slide  Valves.— Those  familiar  with  the  development  of  steam- 


356  APPENDIX 

engine  practice  are  aware  of  the  great  interest  that  has  always 
been  taken  in  counterbalancing  the  pressure  on  the  distributing 
valves  of  the  slide  type.  This  is  an  early  contribution  by  West- 
inghouse  to  the  subject. 

No.  162,782,  May  4,  1875.  Governor  for  Steam  Engine.— This 
patent  describes  a  governor  for  regulating  the  speed  of  steam 
engines  in  which  the  valve  mechanism  for  controlling  the  flow  of 
steam  to  the  engine  is  actuated  by  fluid  pressure  that  is  controlled 
by  a  centrifugal  governor.  By  this  method  of  construction  a 
small  amount  of  centrifugal  force,  operating  through  limited  mo- 
tion, is  caused  to  actuate  the  large  valve  necessary  to  control  the 
flow  of  steam  from  the  boiler  to  the  engine.  In  a  modified  form 
this  device  was  applied  to  many  of  the  ships  of  the  United  States 
Navy  as  well  as  to  a  large  number  of  merchant  vessels,  for  the 
purpose  of  preventing  the  racing  of  the  engines  when  the  screw 
propeller  was  thrown  out  of  water  in  heavy  seas. 

No.  455,028,  June  30,  1891.  Rotary  Engine.— This  patent  is 
of  interest,  as  containing  in  the  specification  a  clear  statement  of 
the  difficulties  theretofore  encountered  in  attempting  to  produce 
an  economical  and  serviceable  rotary  engine  of  the  type  described, 
and  a  proposed  remedy.  Following  the  general  lines  laid  down 
in  this  patent,  but  with  important  variations  of  detail,  West- 
inghouse  produced  many  working  examples  of  rotary  engines 
with  results  that  would  probably  have  satisfied  many  less  exact- 
ing inventors.  There  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  some  of  the 
forms  produced  could  have  been  commercialized  to  advantage, 
but  it  was  only  after  he  became  interested  in  the  steam  turbine 
that  he  felt  satisfied  with  the  solution  of  the  rotary-engine  prob- 
lem. 

No.  712,626,  November  4,  1902.  Rotary  Engine.— This  is  one 
of  the  early  examples,  probably  the  first,  of  Westinghouse's  con- 
tribution to  the  steam-turbine  art,  although  in  the  patent  it  is 
called  a  rotary  engine. 

No.  807,003,  December  12,  1905.  No.  807,145,  December  12, 
1905.  No.  807,146,  December  12,  1905.  No.  866,171,  Septem- 
ber 17,  1907.  Elastic  Fluid  Turbine. — This  group  of  patents  re- 
lates to  improvement  in  steam  turbines  to  correct  a  difficulty  in- 
herent in  their  construction,  particularly  in  the  larger  sizes.  The 
following  quotation  from  specification  of  Patent  No.  807,003  sets 


APPENDIX  357 

forth  the  problem  presented  for  solution.  "The  stationary  ele- 
ments or  stators  of  elastic-fluid  turbines  it  has  been  found  under 
certain  conditions  encountered  during  operation  distort,  and  in 
turbines  where  the  clearances  between  the  free  ends  of  the  blades 
and  vanes  and  the  stator  and  rotor  are  small  these  distortions 
are  liable  to  cause  trouble.  To  overcome  the  troubles  incident 
to  stator  or  rotor  distortions  has  been  an  object  of  this  invention. 
The  steam,  when  it  reaches  the  low-pressure  end  of  steam  tur- 
bines, is  more  or  less  saturated  with  water,  and  the  throwing  out 
of  said  water  radially  by  the  blades,  due  to  centrifugal  force,  it 
has  been  found  when  using  unshrouded  blades,  causes  a  pitting 
or  eating  away  of  the  stationary  element  or  stator  in  line  with  the 
rows  of  rotor  blades;  and  a  further  object  of  this  invention  has 
been  to  provide  in  combination  with  the  means  for  overcoming 
the  troubles  due  to  distortion  means  for  overcoming  this  pitting 
or  eating  away  of  the  stator."  The  importance  of  establishing  the 
smallest  possible  clearance  at  the  ends  of  the  blading,  without 
destructive  mechanical  contact,  is  recognized  by  all  turbine  engi- 
neers as  of  highest  importance  in  the  production  of  highly  effi- 
cient machines.  This  was  the  purpose  sought  to  be  attained  by 
the  methods  proposed  in  these  patents. 

No.  787,485,  April  18,  1905.  Fluid  Pressure  Turbine.  No. 
816,516,  March  27,  1906.  Fluid  Pressure  Turbine.  No.  935,569, 
September  28,  1909.  Elastic  Fluid  Turbine.  No.  995,508,  June 
20, 191 1 .  Elastic  Fluid  Turbine.— This  group  of  patents  describes 
the  most  important  contributions  of  Westinghouse  to  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  turbine  art,  covering  the  features  of  single- 
double  flow  and  reaction-impulse  construction,  by  means  of  which 
the  size  and  speed  limits  of  turbine  construction  were  greatly  ex- 
tended. The  specifications  of  these  several  patents  clearly  state 
the  purpose  to  be  accomplished  and  the  methods  of  doing  it. 

SIGNALLING  AND   INTERLOCKING 

No.  237,149,  February  1,  1881.  Railway  Switch  Movement.— 
Westinghouse's  first  patent  in  this  art.  It  is  "a  part  of  a 
pneumatic  or  hydraulic  apparatus,"  preferably  compressed  air. 
Two  pistons  of  different  area  are  connected  by  a  motion  plate. 
There  is  constant  pressure  on  the  smaller  piston,  which  acts  to 
hold  the  switch  "normal,"  that  is,  set  for  the  main  track.  The 


358  APPENDIX 

larger  piston,  when  brought  into  action,  overcomes  the  smaller 
and  moves  the  switch  to  the  turnout  position.  There  is  provi- 
sion for  locking  the  switch  in  either  position.  This  device  was 
modified  to  use  one  double-acting  piston  and  cylinder,  with 
means  for  using  power  on  one  side  or  the  other  of  the  piston,  and 
in  that  form  is  now  much  used,  notably  in  the  New  York  sub- 
ways. 

No.  240,628,  April  26,  1881.  Block-Signalling  Apparatus.— A 
fluid-pressure  signal  movement,  automatically  controlled  by  a 
track  instrument.  This  combination  was  never  installed  in  actual 
service.  The  patent  has  historical  interest,  as  showing  the  gen- 
eral attitude  at  the  time  against  the  use  of  electric  track  circuits 
and  electric  apparatus  for  the  control  of  signals,  although  the 
Robinson  closed  track  circuit  was  known.  Track  conditions  were 
unfavorable  and  the  electric  apparatus  was  not  robust.  West- 
inghouse  sought  simple  and  rugged  means,  using  a  track  instru- 
ment, or  treadle,  actuated  by  passing  wheels  and,  in  turn,  actu- 
ating valves  and  so  setting  in  motion  compressed  air  and  liquid 
columns.  Others  used  treadles  to  close  contacts  and  send  an 
electric  impulse  to  the  signal  mechanism.  Both  systems  were 
fundamentally  unsafe,  as  a  train  in  block  was  not  acting  con- 
stantly on  the  signal  control.  The  closed  track  circuit  eventually 
came  into  general  use  and  corrected  this  defect. 

No.  240,629,  April  26,  1881.  Switch  and  Signal  Apparatus.— 
An  interlocking  system  commonly  known  as  the  "hydropneu- 
matic"  system.  The  first  system  patent,  showing  fluid-pressure 
motors  for  moving  switches  and  signals,  closed  hydraulic  columns 
for  controlling  the  motors,  compressed-air  apparatus  for  setting  in 
motion  the  hydraulic  columns,  and  an  interlocking  machine  for 
manipulating  the  combination.  The  basis  of  a  system  that  was 
much  used  between  1882  and  1890;  replaced  by  the  electropneu- 
matic  system. 

No.  245,108,  August  2, 1881.  Fluid-Pressure  Switch  and  Signal 
Apparatus. — A  fluid-pressure  switch  motor  controlled  by  an  elec- 
tromagnetic valve.  The  first  appearance  of  the  electromagnetic 
valve  in  this  art — an  important  step.  The  valve  exactly  as  shown 
was  never  used  in  practice,  but  fundamentally  the  arrangement 
of  valve,  magnet,  and  control  circuits  is  that  used  today  in 
electropneumatic  switch  operation.  The  provision  of  contacts  for 


APPENDIX  359 

establishing  indicating  circuits  to  get  indication  of  operation  back 
to  the  operator  is  another  feature  of  modern  practice  that  origi- 
nated in  this  patent. 

No.  245,592,  August  9,  1881.  Combined  Electric  and  Fluid- 
Pressure  Mechanism. — Possibly  the  most  important  patent 
granted  to  Westinghouse  for  a  single  signal  mechanism,  as  its 
elements  remain  substantially  unaltered  and  but  little  modified 
in  detail  in  the  many  devices  to  which  they  have  been  applied 
during  the  past  thirty-five  years.  It  comprises  an  electromagnet, 
a  double-seated  pin  valve  operated  thereby,  and  a  single-acting 
piston  operated  by  pressure  (against  gravity)  admitted  and  dis- 
charged by  the  valve.  Not  alone  to  signals  has  this  combination 
been  extensively  applied,  but  to  automatic  train-stopping  de- 
vices, drawbridge  locks,  contacting  devices  of  various  designs  and 
for  various  purposes.  It  is  used  in  the  modern  electropneumatic 
train  brake  and  in  the  thermostatic  control  of  ventilators,  heat- 
ers, etc.  In  fact,  it  is  an  ideal  means  for  the  control  of  com- 
pressed air  in  almost  any  service  where  quick  action  is  demanded 
of  large  volumes  from  remote  points  by  an  almost  insignificant 
electrical  impulse  in  diminutive  conductors.  To  this  device  the 
E.  P.  block-signalling  and  interlocking  systems  owe  their  final 
success. 

No.  246,053,  August  23,  1881.  Interlocking  Switch  and  Sig- 
nal Apparatus. — An  interlocking  machine.  Supplements  No. 
240,629,  which  shows  a  system  in  combination.  This  patent  cov- 
ers specially  the  interlocking  machine  used  in  that  system,  which 
is  hydropneumatic  and  soon  gave  way  to  the  electropneumatic 
system. 

No.  270,867,  January  16,  1883.  Electric  Circuit  for  Railway 
Signalling. — An  electric  track  circuit  (closed)  for  single-track 
working.  Controls  both  opposing  and  following  movements. 
This  patent  marked  a  new  era  in  the  method  of  arranging  and 
controlling  automatic  signals.  Previous  to  the  introduction  of 
this  method  in  practice  (at  Mingo  Junction,  Ohio,  P.  C.  C.  & 
St.  L.  R.  R.  in  about  1883)  the  custom  was  to  use  a  single  signal 
at  the  entrance  of  each  block  section  and  to  extend  its  control 
over  the  whole  or  a  part  of  the  next  succeeding  block  section — 
thus  insuring  always  two  signals  at  "stop"  in  the  rear  of  trains. 
This  involved  delay  of  trains.  The  system  here  shown  eliminates 


360  APPENDIX 

this  "overlapping"  control  and  uses  a  separate  auxiliary  (cau- 
tionary or  distant)  signal  located  beneath  the  usual  block  signal. 
Thus  the  "home"  or  block  signal  proper  governs  to  the  end  of 
its  block  only,  while  the  "distant"  or  cautionary  signal  is  con- 
trolled from  the  second  block  ahead.  Separate  indications  are 
given  the  engineman  as  to  conditions  of  two  blocks  at  all  times, 
and  he  may  "proceed  at  caution"  when  only  one  block  immedi- 
ately ahead  is  clear. 

No.  357,109,  February  1,  1887.  Electric  Interlocking  Mecha- 
nism for  Switches  and  Signals. — Title  misleading  as  "electric  in- 
terlocking" has  come  to  mean  a  system  in  which  the  switch  and 
signal  motors  as  well  as  the  control  are  electric.  The  title  was 
probably  chosen  as  describing  the  interlocking  machine.  This  is 
a  fluid-pressure  system  using  hydraulic  motors  and  liquid  col- 
umns to  convey  the  control  from  interlocking  machine  to  motors. 
Compressed-air  valves  and  devices  are  used  to  set  in  motion  the 
liquid  columns.  The  air  valves  are  controlled  amongst  them- 
selves and  from  the  switches  and  signals  by  electric  circuits. 
Much  the  most  comprehensive  system  of  interlocking  developed 
up  to  that  time  and  it  anticipates  much  in  the  further  develop- 
ment of  the  art.  As  modified  and  improved  in  detail,  it  was 
used  for  a  few  years  and  then  abandoned  for  the  electropneu- 
matic  system,  but  disclosed  many  principles  of  control  which 
were  embodied  in  the  electropneumatic  development. 

No.  358,519,  March  1,  1887.  Electropneumatic  Interlocking 
Apparatus. — The  first  system  patent  in  the  electropneumatic  art. 
Certain  elements  had  already  been  designed  and  patented,  and  a 
system  was  disclosed  in  No.  357,109,  hydropneumatic.  ,No. 
358,519  was  never  installed,  as  the  hydropneumatic  system  filled 
the  limited  field  until  another  electropneumatic  system,  simpli- 
fied and  improved,  was  brought  out,  four  years  later. 

No.  358,520,  March  1, 1887.  Electric  Fluid-Pressure  Engine.— 
A  piston  engine  to  move  switches  and  signals  using  fluid  pres- 
sure, preferably  compressed  air  operated  by  a  fluid-pressure  slide 
valve,  controlled  in  turn  by  an  electromagnetic  valve.  An  ele- 
ment in  an  interlocking  system  permitting  movement  of  a  func- 
tion from  any  distance,  as  power  is  stored  at  the  place  of  opera- 
tion and  put  in  action  by  an  electric  impulse  from  an  interlocking 
machine  or  track  circuit.  Fluid  pressure  is  used  for  the  dis- 


APPENDIX  361 

tributing  valve,  as  the  stroke  is  too  long  to  be  economically  made 
by  an  armature,  but  the  control  of  the  valve  is  within  the  range 
of  motion  of  an  armature.  This  patent  further  discloses  the 
principle  of  "selection,"  by  which  two  or  more  movements  are 
controlled  by  one  lever — very  important  in  the  art. 

No.  358,521,  March  1,  1887.  Electrically  Actuated  Fluid-Pres- 
sure Motor. — Differs  from  No.  358,520  in  being  designed  for  sig- 
nals only  and  the  piston  is  moved  one  way  by  gravity.  The 
movement  of  the  valve  is,  therefore,  so  short  that  it  can  be  actu- 
ated directly  by  electricity,  eliminating  the  fluid-pressure  valve 
of  No.  358,520.  A  signal-operating  device  of  great  simplicity, 
durability  and  efficiency,  which  has  remained  substantially  un- 
altered for  thirty-five  years;  possibly  the  best  original  adaptation 
of  a  conception  to  existing  and  future  demands  and  requirements 
that  can  be  found  in  any  of  Westinghouse's  signal  patents. 

No.  358,713,  March  1,  1887.  Electrically  Actuated  Fluid- 
Pressure  Motor  and  Circuits  Therefor. — An  improvement  on  earlier 
designs  to  get  greater  safety.  The  movement  of  a  lock  in  an 
interlocking  machine  or  of  a  signal  is  made  to  follow  the  move- 
ment of  a  switch  by  means  of  an  electric  circuit.  In  this  inven- 
tion the  circuit  is  made  or  broken  not  only  by  the  movement  of 
the  piston  of  the  switch  motor  but  also  by  the  movement  of  the 
valve.  Thus  the  movement  of  the  dependent  function  (lock  or 
signal)  cannot  begin  until  the  movement  of  the  switch  is  begun 
and  also  completed.  This  principle  of  preliminary  locking  was 
familiar  in  mechanical  locking,  but  was  not  so  thoroughly  used 
before  in  power  interlocking. 

No.  360,638,  April  5, 1887.  Railway  Electric  Signal  Apparatus. 
— An  improvement  on  No.  270,867,  being  track-circuit  control 
particularly  designed  for  double  track.  No.  270,867  was  for 
single  track  As  here  shown,  this  system  was  extensively  applied 
on  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  and  other  important  trunk  lines  of 
this  country.  The  control  shown  has  also  been  extensively  used 
on  American  railways  with  other  types  of  automatic  signals  than 
those  shown  in  the  drawings  of  the  patent. 

No.  446,159,  February  10,  1891.  (Jens  G.  Schreuder,  co- 
inventor.)  Switch  and  Signal  Apparatus. — Discloses  what  is 
practically  the  final  form  of  the  electropneumatic  interlocking 
machine  which  Westinghouse  had  been  working  at  for  ten 


362  APPENDIX 

years,  in  combination  with  elements  that  he  had  developed  and 
patented  from  time  to  time.  It  is  his  most  important  patent  in 
this  art,  being  the  simplification  and  synthesis  of  all  that  had 
gone  before.  It  is  unusually  elegant  in  detail  and  is  an  interest- 
ing example  of  evolution. 

No.  1,284,006,  November  5, 1918.  Automatic  Train  Control.— 
This  application  was  filed  five  months  after  the  death  of 
Westinghouse  and  the  patent  was  issued  to  his  executors.  It 
was  his  last  patent.  The  automatic  control  of  railway  trains,  to 
reduce  speed  or  stop  a  train  without  the  act  of  the  engineer,  has 
long  been  the  subject  of  invention,  but  this  is  the  only  invention 
of  Westinghouse  in  that  field.  The  elements  of  his  electro- 
pneumatic  system  had  been  very  successfully  combined  into 
automatic  train  control,  in  important  special  cases,  by  the 
Union  Switch  and  Signal  Company.  In  this  invention  Westing- 
house  undertook  a  general  solution  of  the  problem,  and  he  gave 
to  it  deep  study  and  long  and  costly  experimentation  with  ap- 
paratus so  designed  and  built  as  to  be  fit  for  road  service.  He 
aimed  to  stop  a  train  by  setting  the  brakes;  to  limit  its  speed;  to 
permit  the  engineer  to  throw  the  automatic  apparatus  out  of 
service;  to  record  every  such  manipulation,  and  to  make  a  con- 
tinuous record  of  the  speed  of  the  train.  The  brake  application 
may  be  either  service  or  emergency,  and  apparatus  may  be  added 
to  shut  off  power  as  well  as  to  apply  the  brakes. 

NATURAL  GAS  AND  FUEL  GAS 

No.  301,191,  July  1,  1884.  System  for  Conveying  and  Utiliz- 
ing Gas  under  Pressure. — The  first  of  a  series  of  patents  taken 
out  during  the  development  of  the  natural-gas  distribution  in  tho 
vicinity  of  Pittsburgh.  The  objects  of  this  first  invention  are: 
Protection  against  accidents  due  to  leakage  of  gas  at  high  pres- 
sure; to  retain  and  utilize  gas  that  may  leak  in  transit;  and  to 
provide  for  the  delivery  of  gas  at  desired  points  in  the  line  and 
at  determined  pressure  below  that  of  the  gas  in  the  main  conduct- 
ing pipe.  The  conducting  pipe  is  enclosed  in  a  protecting  casing. 
In  this  way  compartments  are  formed,  and  these  are  charged 
with  gas  at  low  pressure.  They  receive  and  retain  any  leakage 
from  the  conducting  pipe  and  have  vent  pipes  and  safety  valves. 
A  pressure-regulating  valve  covers  the  normal  delivery  of  gas 


APPENDIX  363 

from  the  conducting  pipe  to  the  safety  compartment.  Gas  is 
taken  off  for  consumption  by  service  pipes  connecting  with  this 
low-pressure  compartment. 

No.  307,606,  November  4,  1884.  Well-Drilling  Apparatus  — 
The  object  is  to  "facilitate  and  expedite  drilling  of  wells"  by 
avoiding  the  delays  occasioned  by  the  necessity  of  intermitting 
the  drilling  operation  to  remove  the  cuttings  and  other  solid  mat- 
ters from  the  bore  of  the  well.  The  invention  combines  rotary 
cutting  apparatus  and  a  fluid-pressure  motor  actuating  it  and 
means  for  sustaining  and  feeding  said  cutting  apparatus  and 
motor.  In  other  words,  the  motor  and  pumping  apparatus  are 
kept  well  down  in  the  boring,  and  the  material  to  be  cleared  is 
forced  out. 

No.  306,566,  October  14, 1884.  Reissue  No.  10,561,  February 
17,  1885.  No.  312,541,  February  17,  1885.  No.  312,542,  Feb- 
ruary 17,  1885.  No.  312,777,  February  24,  1885.  No.  314,089, 
March  17,  1885.  No.  315,363,  April  7,  1885.  No.  318,840,  May 
26,  1885.  No.  318,841,  May  26,  1885.  No.  319,364,  June  2, 1885. 
No.  319,365,  June  2,  1885.  No.  319,765,  June  9,  1885.  No. 
323,246,  July  28,  1885.  No.  331,595,  December  1,  1885.  No. 
331,596,  December  1,  1885.  No.  333,800,  January  5,  1886.  No. 
340,266,  April  20,  1886.  No.  340,267,  April  20,  1886.  No.  342,- 
659,  May  25,  1886.  No.  344,701,  June  29,  1886.  Detecting  and 
Preventing  Leakage. — The  importance  of  preventing  and  detecting 
leakage  of  natural  gas  as  it  appeared  to  the  mind  of  Westing- 
house  will  be  indicated  by  these  twenty  patents  taken  out  in  quick 
succession.  Many  serious  and  alarming  accidents  occurred  in  the 
Pittsburgh  district  from  leakage  which,  owing  to  the  fact  that 
natural  gas  is  comparatively  without  odor,  was  not  always  de- 
tected, and  some  very  serious  explosions  took  place.  Westing- 
house  dwelt  upon  the  fact  that  economical  conveyance  of  gas 
over  long  distances  demanded  high  pressures  and  large  mains, 
hence  unusual  difficulties  in  controlling  leaks.  One  method, 
shown  in  the  patents,  is  to  enclose  the  gas  main  proper  in  a 
second  pipe,  the  space  between  the  two  being  constantly  filled 
with  gas  at  low  pressure.  (See  the  first  patent  of  July  1,  1884.) 
This  prevented  the  entrance  of  atmospheric  air  and  formation  of 
an  explosive  mixture.  This  space  was  filled  by  occasional  leak- 
age from  the  high-pressure  main,  and  by  gas  intentionally  ad- 


364  APPENDIX 

mitted  iato  the  space  through  regulating  valves.  The  service 
pipes  were  tapped  off  from  this  low-pressure  gas.  Another  method 
that  proved  effective  was  to  surround  the  main  with  broken 
stone  or  other  loose  material,  and  carry  to  the  surface  pipes 
through  which  gas,  leaking  from  the  main,  into  this  loose  mate- 
rial, would  be  conveyed  to  the  air  and  its  presence  easily  tested 
by  application  of  a  light.  Another  precaution  shown  in  a  num- 
ber of  these  patents  had  to  do  with  expedients  for  making  effec- 
tive joints  in  the  gas  main  and  in  the  connections  to  the  service 
pipes. 

No.  312,543,  February  17, 1885.  No.  324,905,  August  25,  1885. 
No.  341,295,  May  4,  1886.  No.  352,382,  November  9,  1886. 
No.  389,032,  September  4,  1888.  Pressure  Regulators  and  Cut- 
Off. — A  small  group  of  important  patents  is  here  shown.  The 
necessity  of  stepping  down  the  pressure  from  the  main  to  the 
point  of  use  is  obvious.  Another  matter,  not  so  obvious,  was 
the  necessity  of  automatically  cutting  off  the  flow  of  gas  in  case, 
for  any  reason,  the  pressure  should  fall  below  a  certain  fixed 
point.  This  is  explained  in  the  text.  It  was  also  found  neces- 
sary to  regulate  the  pressure  to  a  degree  workable  in  a  propor- 
tional meter  for  measuring  the  consumption  of  gas. 

No.  318,839,  May  26,  1885.  Regulator  for  Gas  and  Air  Sup- 
ply to  Furnaces. — The  object  is  "to  obtain  a  higher  degree  of 
effectiveness  and  economy  in  the  use  of  gas  as  a  fuel  for  generat- 
ing steam  by  provision  of  means  for  automatically  regulating  the 
supply  of  gas  and  air  to  a  steam-boiler  furnace,  in  accordance 
with  and  proportionately  to  variations  in  the  pressure  of  steam 
therein."  This  device  is  designed  to  give  automatic  regulation. 

No.  347,673,  August  17,  1886.  Proportional  Meter.— The  ob- 
ject is  to  measure  the  quantity  of  gas  as  well  as  the  rate  of  flow. 
This  is  done  by  the  combination  of  two  operating  valves  covering 
the  proportionate  delivery  of  gas  from  the  supply  pipe  to  a  meter, 
the  capacity  of  which  is  a  determined  fraction  of  the  total  volume, 
and  to  a  direct  delivery  outlet,  a  regulator  acting  to  maintain 
uniform  pressure  in  the  meter  and  in  the  direct-delivery  passages. 

No.  365,454,  June  28,  1887.  Long-Distance  Gas  Distribution. 
— The  essential  feature  of  this  patent  is  the  use  of  a  main  of  con- 
stantly increasing  diameter.  "It  was  the  practice  before  this  in- 
vention to  lay  lines  of  uniform  diameter,  and  when  it  was  desired 


APPENDIX  365 

to  increase  the  quantity  of  gas  to  lay  an  additional  line.  The 
pipe  used  varied  from  5  inches  to  8  inches  in  diameter."  This 
necessitates  a  high  pressure  throughout.  In  this  invention  the 
size  and  capacity  of  the  main  are  increased  at  successive  intervals. 
The  advantage  of  enlarging  the  pipe  is  not  only  to  lessen  the 
average  general  pressure  but  also  to  provide  a  considerable  reser- 
voir capacity  and  at  the  same  time  to  greatly  accelerate  the  flow 
of  the  gas  from  the  well  to  points  of  distribution. 

No.  680,827,  August  20,  1901.  No.  680,828,  August  20,  1901. 
No.  739,367,  September  22,  1903.  No.  890,951,  June  16,  1908. 
Gas  Producers. — These  patents  have  especially  to  do  with  the 
production  and  use  of  fuel  gas,  a  matter  which  for  a  long  time 
occupied  much  of  the  attention  of  Westinghouse.  The  first 
patent  is  more  directly  calculated  to  use  in  connection  with  gas 
engines  in  order  that  the  products  of  combustion  from  the  engine 
itself  should  supply  heat  to  the  producer  for  the  generation  of 
additional  gas.  The  other  patents,  while  embodying  the  same 
idea,  are  devoted  mainly  to  the  improvement  of  the  producer. 

MISCELLANEOUS  PATENTS 

No.  61,967,  February  12,  1867.  Improved  Railroad  Switch.— 
The  second  of  Westinghouse's  recorded  patents  and,  with  No. 
76,365,  the  foundation  of  his  business.  This  is  not  properly  a 
switch,  but  a  rerailing  frog  designed  to  replace  on  the  rail  the 
wheels  of  a  car  or  locomotive.  A  very  early  example,  and  possi- 
bly the  first. 

No.  76,365,  April  7,  1868,  and  reissue  No.  3,584,  August  3, 
1869.  Improved  Railway  Frog. — The  improvement  consists 
chiefly  in  the  arrangement  of  a  chair  under  each  end  of  the  frog. 
A  feature  not  claimed  in  the  patent  was  the  reversibility  of  the 
frog;  that  is  to  say,  there  were  practically  two  frogs  in  one  struc- 
ture, so  that  after  it  was  worn  out  on  one  side  it  could  be  turned 
over  and  used  on  the  other.  It  was  also  probably  the  first  steel 
casting  used  in  railway  work,  as  they  were  all  made  of  crucible 
cast  steel,  and  some  thousands  of  them  were  sold.  It  was  for  the 
purpose  of  exploiting  this  particular  device  that  Westinghouse 
went  to  Pittsburgh. 

No.  223,201,  December  30,  1879.    No.  223,202,  December  30, 


366  APPENDIX 

1879.  No.  224,565,  February  17,  1880.  Auxiliary  Telephone 
Exchanges. — A  very  early  example  of  what  is  now  known  as 
"Automatic  Telephone  Switching"  or  "Machine  Switching." 
Designed  primarily  to  automatically  connect  any  one  of  a  group 
of  country  subscribers  through  an  automatic  local  exchange  to  a 
central  exchange,  thus  saving  wire  as  compared  with  direct  con- 
nection from  the  subscriber  to  the  central  exchange.  Never  put 
into  practical  use. 

No.  400,420,  March  26,  1889.  Fluid  Meter.— This  is  a  water 
meter,  the  object  of  the  invention  being  to  provide  a  meter  in 
which  only  a  comparatively  small  percentage  of  the  pressure  of 
the  fluid  to  be  measured  is  required  to  actuate  the  measuring  de- 
vices and  in  which  the  movement  of  the  measuring  receptacles  is 
continuous  and  progressive,  avoiding  the  loss  of  power  due  to 
stopping  and  change  of  direction.  This  patent  is  taken  in  col- 
laboration with  Mr.  C.  N.  Dutton,  and  is  a  particularly  ingenious 
device,  and  has  been  largely  used. 

No.  493,881,  March  21,  1893.  Rotary  Water  Meter.— This 
patent  is  taken  in  collaboration  with  Mr.  E.  Ruud.  The  purpose 
is  to  provide  a  simpler  and  cheaper  meter  than  that  shown  in  the 
patent  of  Westinghouse  and  Dutton,  No.  400,420. 

No.  550,359,  November  26,  1895.  Exhaust  Pumps.— This  is 
for  a  pump  particularly  designed  to  exhaust  bulbs  of  incandescent 
electric  lamps  It  was  made  during  the  development  of  a  lighting 
system  for  the  Chicago  World's  Fair  of  1893,  the  patent  applica- 
tion having  been  filed  November  26,  1892.  It  was  a  part  of  the 
general  development  which  enabled  the  Westinghouse  Electric 
Company  to  take  and  perform  the  contract  for  the  lighting  of  the 
Fair. 

No.  550,466,  November  26,  1895.  Rotary  Pumping  and  Motor 
Apparatus.  No.  550,467,  November  26,  1895.  Electric  and 
Fluid  Locomotor.  No.  595,007,  December  7,  1897.  Elevator.— 
This  group  of  patents  is  interesting,  as  they  directly  resulted  from 
Westinghouse 's  experimentation  in  the  rotary-engine  field.  The 
primary  purpose  of  the  invention  was  to  devise  a  method  and 
mechanism  for  translating  uniform  rotative  speed  into  variable 
speeds.  At  'the  date  of  the  issue  of  these  patents  alternating- 
current  motors  were  not  capable  of  economical  speed  variation, 
and  it  was  to  overcome  this  limitation  that  the  inventor  devel- 


APPENDIX  367 

oped  the  inventions  shown  therein.  As  already  stated,  in  each 
case  the  devices  proposed  to  accomplish  the  purpose  of  the  inven- 
tion contained  the  chief  mechanical  characteristics  of  the  rotary 
engine. 

No.  708,107,  September  2,  1902.  Furnace.— In  1895  Mr. 
James  Douglas,  an  eminent  mining  engineer,  in  a  paper  on  the 
Metallurgy  of  Copper,  said:  "A  real  improvement  would  be  de- 
vising an  air-jacketed  furnace  which  would  not  buckle  and  in 
which  the  blast  could  be  raised  to  a  much  higher  degree  than 
could  be  done  by  simply  air-jacketing  the  crucible."  This  inven- 
tion of  Westinghouse  is  designed  for  an  air-jacketed  smelting 
furnace  that  should  be  robust  enough  not  to  be  deformed  under 
use,  and  that  should  have  such  large  radiating  surface  as  to  make 
air-cooling  effective. 

No.  1,050,186,  January  14,  1913.  Dynamometer.— This  is  a 
very  ingenious  dynamometer  designed  for  use  in  elaborate  tests 
of  the  efficiency  of  propellers,  which  tests  were  carried  on  for  a 
considerable  time  and  on  an  elaborate  scale.  The  object  is  to 
measure  the  power  delivered  to  the  propeller,  together  with  which 
are  measured  and  recorded  the  longitudinal  thrust  and  the  speed 
of  the  propeller,  and  the  velocity  of  the  water  leaving  the  pro- 
peller. 

No.  1,031,759,  July  9,  1912.  Vehicle-Supporting  Device.  No. 
1,036,043,  August  20,  1912.  Fluid-Pressure  Device.— These  pat- 
ents are  for  the  inventions  embodied  in  the  Westinghouse  air 
spring  for  motor  cars,  the  characteristics  of  which  are  widely 
known. 


INDEX 


Abbot,  Gordon,  251 

Adams,  Edward  D.,  141 

Air  brake,  genesis  of,  23;  first  patent, 
24;  who  invented  it?  25;  first  air- 
braked  train,  29;  Air  Brake  Com- 
pany chartered,  31;  standards,  37; 
the  automatic  brake,  32;  influence 
of  English  opinion,  34;  the  triple 
valve,  38,  42,  58,  61;  the  Scott 
Medal,  Franklin  Institute,  40;  en- 
gineer's valve,  45 ;  driver  brake,  46 ; 
brake  beams,  47;  hose  coupling,  47; 
slack  adjuster,  48;  emergency  trip, 
48;  Burlington  trials,  50;  the  great- 
est contribution  to  the  art  of  brak- 
ing, 61;  the  brake  goes  to  England, 
62;  Newark  trials,  64;  Galton- 
Westinghouse  experiments,  65; 
some  practical  results,  68;  British 
and  American  brakes,  73;  the  in- 
struction car,  74 

Air  lubrication  of  ship's  hulls  and 
propellers,  197 

Air  spring  for  automobiles,  252;  a 
year  of  experimental  work,  254; 
spring  wheels,  cushion  tires,  etc., 
255;  Westinghouse  enthusiastic, 
255 

Alexander,  James  W.,  282 

Alternating  current,  16,  88;  in  light- 
ing, 96;  Westinghouse  interest  be- 
gins, 100;  takes  option  on  Gau- 
lard  and  Gibbs  patents,  102;  begins 
serious  study,  104;  buys  Gaulard 
and  Gibbs  rights,  112;  forms  Elec- 
tric Company,  113;  95  per  cent  of 
electric  energy  alternating  current, 
115;  motor  and  meter,  121;  conver- 
sion, 130;  results  of  Chicago  Expo- 
sition and  Niagara,  see  these  chap- 
ters; in  traction,  see  Chapter  IX; 
effects  on  civilization,  see  last 
chapter 


Amber  Club,  290 

Ambler,  Augustine,  L.,  23 

Arnold,  B.  J.,  167 

Astor,  John  Jacob,  141 

Auxiliary  turbines  for  schooners,  195 

Backstrom,  C.  A.,  rotary-engine  pat- 
ent, 182 

Bacon,  Francis,  11 

Baggaley,  Ralph,  25 

Bartlett,  Professor  William  Holms 
Chambers,  312 

Belfield,  Reginald,  vii,  103, 113,  114, 
141 

Belmont,  August,  258 

Bessemer,  Sir  Henry,  321,  325,  327 

Betts,  L.  F.  H.,  236 

Blathey,  104,  111 

Bradley,  Charles  S.,  invents  a  rotary 
converter,  131 

British  and  American  brake  practice, 
reasons  for  differences,  73 

British  Westinghouse  Electric  and 
Manufacturing  Company,  264 

Brush,  Charles  F.,  92 

Burchard,  Anson  W.,  251 

Burlington  Brake  Trials,  a  crisis  in 
brake  history,  50;  reports  of 
M.  C.  B.  Association,  52,  56,  59; 
discouraging  results  in  1887,  57; 
Westinghouse  to  the  rescue,  58 

Byllesby,  H.  H.,  113,  114 

By-products,  auxiliary  turbine  for  a 
schooner,  195;  propeller  designs 
and  tests,  195;  air  lubrication  of 
hip's  hulls  and  propellers,  197 

Caldwell,  John,  113 

Canadian    Westinghouse   Company, 

Ltd.,  264,  280 
Car  replacers  (for  derailed  cars),  8, 

365 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  312 


369 


370 


INDEX 


Carnegie,  Andrew,  308 

Carnot,  Sadi,  184,  314 

Cassatt,  A.  J.,  77,  86,  256 

Cast-steel  frog  and  first  steel  foundry, 
181,  365 

Cataract  Construction  Company, 
142,  et  seq. 

Central  power  system,  117;  largest 
station,  201;  the  Clyde  Valley  en- 
terprise, 267 

Chicago,  Milwaukee,  and  St.  Paul 
electrification,  171;  regeneration, 
172;  load  balancing,  173 

Chicago  World's  Fair  (Columbian 
Exposition),  Westinghouse  takes 
lighting  contract,  134;  "stopper 
lamp,"  137;  the  historical  element, 
machinery  shown,  138 

Chinn,  Albert,  411 

Christy,  George  H.,  9,  24 

Civil  War,  Westinghouse  brothers 
in,  3 

Cleveland,  Grover,  8,  283 

Clyde  Valley  Electric  Power  Com- 
pany, 267 

Coffin,  C.  A.,  251 

Coffin,  L.  S.,  51 

Coleman,  John  Pressley,  223 

Columbian  Exposition,  see  Chicago 
World's  Fair 

Compressed-air  transmission  of  pow- 
er, 145;  switching  and  signalling, 
early  patents  for,  219 

Condenser  improvements,  798 

Cooper  Hewitt  Electric  Company,' 
237 

Cooper  Hewitt  lamp,  236 

Copper,  Westinghouse  buys  mines 
and  experiments  in  reducing  ore, 
259;  the  net  result,  260 

Coupler,  combined  gas,  air,  and  elec- 
tric, 242;  important  advantages, 
244 

Cravath,  Paul  D.,  vii,  251,  264,  280 

Cromer,  Earl  of,  293 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  303,  308 

Curtis,  Leonard  E.,  100,  138 

Dalzell,  John,  113 
Darwin,  Charles,  309 
De  Laval,  185,  191 


Deri,  104,  111 

Dewing,  Arthur  S.,  281 
Diehl,  Phillip,  112 

Edison,  Thomas  A.,  93, 135, 137, 145, 
159 

Edison  Electric  Lighting  Company, 
293 

Edison  General  Electric  Company, 
134 

Education,  7;  use  of  English,  7,  310; 
would  he  have  been  greater  with 
more  education?  311;  his  scrap- 
heap,  311;  the  laws  of  nature,  313; 
a  trained  engineer,  314;  heat  and 
power  from  the  atmosphere,  314; 
perpetual  motion,  317;  reverence 
and  religion,  318 

Electrical  activities,  a  general  sketch, 
87;  current,  kinds  and  character- 
istics, 87;  takes  up  lighting,  91; 
"stopper  lamp,"  94;  some  early  in- 
stallations, 95;  arc  lighting,  96; 
early  direct-current  machinery,  98; 
origin  of  Westinghouse's  interest  in 
alternating  current,  100;  invention 
of  Gaulard  and  Gibbs,  100;  the 
transformer  is  begun,  104;  and  rap- 
idly developed,  105;  the  art  is  rev- 
olutionized, 111;  Westinghouse 
Electric  Company  chartered,  113; 
first  commercial  alternating-cur- 
rent plant,  114;  the  Stillwell 
booster,  114;  opposition  to  alter- 
nating current,  114;  about  95  per 
cent  of  electric  energy  now  used 

"  alternating  current,  115;  central 
power-station  idea,  117;  alternat- 
ing-current motor  and  meter,  121; 
Tesla  patents,  121;  reasons  for  slow 
development,  122 ;  rotary  converter, 
130;  Chicago  World's  Fair,  134; 
Niagara  Falls,  141;  a  new  art,  144; 
effects  of  the  Telluride  plant,  144; 
standard  frequencies,  148;  traction, 
159;  St.  Clair  tunnel,  169;  New 
York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford,  170; 
Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul, 
171;  water-power  development  and 
electric  traction,  178;  some  results, 
175;  power  stations,  largest,  201; 


INDEX 


371 


transmission  distances,  present, 
201;  turbogenerators,  201;  elec- 
tricity in  switching  and  signalling, 
215;  mercury  rectifier,  239 

Electric  traction,  early  enterprises, 
159;  development  of  direct-current 
systems,  161;  Vanderpoel  patent, 
163;  state  of  the  art  when  West- 
inghouse  took  up  heavy  traction, 
164;  single-phase  systems,  167;  St. 
Clair  tunnel,  169;  New  York,  New 
Haven  &  Hartford,  170;  Chicago, 
Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul,  171;  some 
broad  results  of  electric  traction, 
175 

Elmer,  J.  J.,  vii 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  76,  304 

English  experiences  with  the  brake, 
62;  the  Newark  trials,  64;  Galton- 
Westinghouse  experiments,  65 

Equitable  Life  trustee,  17;  contro- 
versy in  the  Association,  282;  Ryan 
buys  control,  282;  chooses  trustees, 
283;  letter  to  trustees,  283;  Cleve- 
land's answer,  283;  deed  of  trust 
and  plan,  285;  mutualization,  285 

European  companies,  plans  included 
the  world,  262;  some  foreign  com- 
panies, 263;  only  difficulty  finding 
men,  262;  Lord  Fisher  on  efficiency, 
262;  the  plan  of  1896,  263;  British 
Westinghouse  Electric  and  Manu- 
facturing Company,  one  of  his 
"mistakes,"  264;  Clyde  Valley 
Electrical  Power  Company,  the 
central-power  idea,  267;  brake 
works  in  Paris,  269;  moved  to 
Freinville,  269;  Compagnie  des 
Freins  Westinghouse,  269;  SocietS 
Anonyme  Westinghouse,  269;  So- 
cieta  Italiana  Westinghouse,  270; 
Russian  Brake  Company,  270;  not 
"nationalized"  by  the  Soviet  gov- 
ernment, 271 ;  other  European  com- 
panies, 271;  the  broad  result,  272 

Ferraris,  Galileo,  100,  129 

Field,  Stephen  D.,  159 

Financial  Methods,  qualities  dis- 
played, 273;  self-reliance,  274;  per- 
sonal financing,  275;  used  his  own 


money  and  credit,  276;  idealism, 
277 

Fish,  F.  P.,  287 

Fisher,  Lord  John  Arbuthnot,  262, 
305 

Fisher,  Reverend  S.  J.,  D.D.,  3 

Forbes,  Professor  George,  144,  149 

Franklin  Institute,  the  Scott  medal, 
40 

Friction,  new  light  on  the  laws  of,  71; 
some  effects  on  the  brake  art,  72 

Friction  draft  gear,  77;  a  new  princi- 
ple introduced,  78;  genesis  of  the 
gear,  80;  first  patent  and  first 
train,  83;  functions  of  the  gear,  84; 
first  commercial  use,  85 

Fuel  gas,  see  natural  gas 

Galton,  Sir  Douglas,  66 

Galton-Westinghouse  experiments, 
65;  relations  of  friction  and  speed, 
69;  the  six  conclusions,  68;  a  fal- 
lacy exploded,  70 

Ganz  Company,  104,  131,  139,  148, 
166,  172 

Gas,  fuel,  229 

Gas,  natural,  221 

Gas  engines,  see  steam  and  gas  en- 
gines 

Gaulard,  Lucian,  100 

Gaulard  and  Gibbs  invention,  100 

Geddes,  Sir  Auckland,  320 

General  Electric  Company,  95,  147, 
163,  172,  177,  178,  208,  239,  241, 
242,  251 

Gibbon,  Edward,  311 

Gibbs,  George,  256 

Gibbs,  John  Dixon,  100 

GiUespie,  T.  A.,  227 

Gow,  Alex  M.,  230 

Griffin,  Eugene,  251 

Herr,  E.  M.,  vii,  105,  251 
Herr,  Herbert  T.,  vii,  188,  252 
Hewitt,  Abram  S.,  321,  324 
Hewitt,  Peter  Cooper,  236 
Hodge,  Nehemiah,  63,  215 
Hughes,  Charles  E.,  282 
Huxley,  Thomas  H.,  1,  289,  306,  309 
Hyde,  Henry  B.,  282 
Hydraulic  interlocking,  219 


372 


INDEX 


Idealism,  76,  277 

Induction  motor  and  meter,  121; 
Tesla  patents,  121;  reasons  for  slow 
development,  122;  a  great  chapter 
in  electrical  history,  122;  meters  in- 
vented by  Westinghouse,  Lange, 
and  Shallenberger,  128 

Instruction  car  for  air  brakes,  75 

Insulation,  some  difficulties  and 
methods,  246 

Jackson,  C.  H.,  113 
Johnson,  Doctor  Samuel,  289 

Kapteyn,  Albert,  vii,  307 

Kelvin,  Lord,  vii,  115,  142,  146,  314, 

328 

Kennedy,  Rankin,  111 
Kerr,  Thomas  B.,  9,  100,  137 
Kerr,  Walter  C.,  163 

Lamme,  B.  G.,  vii,  127,  133,  153 
Lamps,  stopper,  233;  tungsten,  233; 
incandescent     system     inefficient, 
234;  Nernst  lamp,  234;  effect  on 
lighting  engineering,  235;  Cooper 
Hewitt  mercury   arc  lamp,   236; 
Cooper  Hewitt  Electric  Company, 
237;  mercury  arc  rectifier,  239 
Lange,  Philip,  128 
Leblanc,  Maurice,  199 
Libau  co-inventor  of  air  spring,  254 
Li  Hung  Chang's  curiosity,  152 
Lincoln,  Paul  M.,  290 
Lukach  (Luke),  J.  H.,  vii,  260 

MacAlpine,  John  H.,  191,  253,  318 

Macaulay,  Lord,  321 

Manufacture  of  power,  118,  201,  320, 
325,  329 

Marsh,  Joseph  W.,  14 

Mascart,  Monsieur  E.,  142 

Master  Car  Builders'  and  Master 
Mechanics'  Associations,  51 

Maxim,  Hiram  S.,  94 

McGinley,  John  R.,  113 

McMillen,  Emerson,  230 

Meaning  of  George  Westinghouse, 
lived  history,  320;  effect  on  trans- 
portation, 321 ;  an  apostle  of  democ- 


racy, 322 ;  the  era  of  manufactured 
power,  325;  effect  on  mankind  sug- 
gested by  Sir  Auckland  Geddes, 
326;  place  of  electricity  in  manu- 
facture of  power,  329 ;  crisis  in  rail- 
road development  and  electrical 
development,  327;  the  judgment  of 
history,  330 

Melville,  Rear  Admiral  George  W., 
191,  253 

Mershon,  Ralph  D.,  290 

Miller,  John  F.,  vii,  299 

Mills,  D.  O.,  141 

Morgan,  J.  P.,  292 

Morley,  Lord,  303,  308 

Morison,  George  S.,  325 

Multiple-unit  control,  what  it  is  and 
why,  Sprague's  invention,  24;  di- 
plomacy fails  and  Westinghouse  in- 
vents, 241;  the  birth  of  the  turret 
control,  242 

Napoleon,  262,  274,  310 

Natural  gas,  broad  conception  and 
bold  execution,  224;  takes  out  38 
patents,  28  in  two  years,  225;  early 
dangers  and  safety  devices,  225 ;  the 
well  at  "Solitude,"  227;  Philadel- 
phia Company,  227;  effects  in 
Pittsburgh,  228;  Pittsburgh  with- 
out smoke,  229;  fuel  gas,  reasons 
for  it,  229 

Neave,  Charles,  251 

Nelson,  Lord,  278,  305 

Nernst,  Doctor  Walter,  234 

Nernst  Lamp  Company,  235 

New  Era,  118,  326 

New  York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford 
electrification,  170 

Niagara  Falls  power  development, 
141;  the  International  Commis- 
sion, 142;  projects  invited,  142; 
decision  to  use  electricity,  145; 
compressed-air  transmission,  145; 
plans  for  development  submitted 
and  rejected,  145;  study  of  fre- 
quency, 148;  generator  adopted, 
149;  specifications  fixed,  150;  con- 
tract let,  151;  a  brilliant  achieve- 
ment, 151;  Li  Hung  Chang's  ad- 
venture, 152;  the  engineers,  153; 


INDEX 


373 


success  and  results,  154;   electro- 
chemical works,  156 
Norfolk  &  Western,  173 

O'Brien,  Judge  Morgan,  J.,  18 
Osborne,  Loyall  A.,  vii 

Pantaleoni,  Guido,  100,  113 

Parsons,  Sir  Charles,  185 

Parsons,  T.  U.,  vii 

Patent  Control,  Board  of,  member- 
ship and  character,  250 

Payne,  Robert  Treat,  251 

Pensions,  the  air-brake  plan,  298 

Personality  of  George  Westinghouse, 
relations  with  his  men,  287;  family 
feeling,  288;  justice  and  prejudice, 
289;  the  Amber  Club,  290;  ethical 
influence,  291;  education  by  West- 
inghouse, 291;  mistakes  in  choos- 
ing men,  292;  charm  and  humor, 
293;  humanitarian  and  welfare 
ideas,  295;  benefit  and  pension 
systems,  297;  his  body,  mind,  and 
manners,  300;  did  not  work  for 
wealth,  302;  imagination,  304; 
fortitude  and  audacity,  305;  per- 
sistence, 305;  energy,  306;  con- 
centration, 306;  memory,  307;  was 
well  served,  309;  knew  the  value  of 
consultation,  309;  more  than  a 
genius,  310;  education,  see  this 
topic  in  the  index 

Philadelphia  Company,  10,  227 

Pitcairn,  Robert,  113 

Pittsburgh,  228 

Pope,  Franklin  L.,  94,  113 

Potter,  Henry  Noel,  234 

Power,  manufacture  of,  118,  325 

Power  switching  and  signalling  a 
basic  contribution  to  the  art,  214 

Pownal,  first  American  home  of  the 
family,  1 

Propellers  for  steamships,  efficiency 
of,  experiments  on,  195 

Rectifier,  mercury  arc,  239 
Reduction  gear,  see  steam  and  gas 

engines 
Renan,  Ernest,  325 


Reorganizations,  receiverships  of 
1917,  279;  Westinghouse's  plan, 
280;  loyalty  of  employees,  281 

Research,  its  place  in  industry,  244; 
Westinghouse's  understanding, 
244;  its  special  place  in  building 
the  electric  art,  246;  insulation, 
246;  mathematical  analysis  and 
research,  247 

Rhodes,  Godfrey  W.,  on  the  Burling- 
ton trials  and  Westinghouse's  tri- 
umph, 59 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  317 

Root,  Elihu,  285 

Rotary  converter,  its  place  and  func- 
tions, 130;  invented  simultaneous- 
ly by  Lamme  and  Bradley,  131; 
drives  large  direct-current  genera- 
tors out  of  business,  132 

Rotary  engines,  see  steam  and  gas 


Rothschild,  Baron,  260 
Rowen,  A.  T.,  113 
Rowland,  Professor  Henry  C.,  146' 
Ryan,  Thomas  F.,  282 

St.  Clair  tunnel  electrified,  169 

Saturday  half-holiday,  295 

Sawyer  and  Man,  93,  136 

Schiff,  Jacob  H.,  293 

Schmid,  Albert,  100,  103,  107,  114, 
148,  153 

Schreuder,  Jens  G.,  222 

Scott,  Professor  Charles  F.,  vii,  144, 
147,  148,  153 

Sellers,  Doctor  Coleman,  141,  142, 
146,  155 

Shallenberger,  O.  B.,  100,  103,  107, 
114,  128,  144,  148,  150,  153 

Shepard,  Frank  H.,  vii 

Siemens  and  Halske  show  a  rotary 
converter,  131 

Signalling  and  interlocking,  function 
of  signals,  212;  fast  traffic  and 
slow,  213;  interlocking,  what  it  is, 
213;  comparative  progress  in  the 
United  States  and  England,  214; 
use  of  power,  a  basic  contribution 
to  the  art,  214;  state  of  the  art 
when  Westinghouse  entered  the 
field,  215;  man-power  interlock- 


374 


INDEX 


ing,  218;  first  patent  for  com- 
pressed air  switch  movement,  218; 
hydraulic  switching,  219;  electro- 
magnetic valve,  219;  electropneu- 
matic  system  early  foreseen,  220; 
first  power  interlocking,  220;  track 
circuits,  221;  most  important  inter- 
locking patent,  222 

Smith,  Frank  Stuart,  138 

Soule,  R.  H.,  83 

Spencer,  Samuel,  251 

Sprague,  Frank  J.,  159,  240 

Stanley,  William,  92,  96,  103,  107, 
109,  110,  113 

Steam  and  gas  engines,  179;  West- 
inghouse's  first  patent  for  a  rotary 
engine,  179;  four-cylinder  recipro- 
cating engine,  180;  single-acting 
engine,  181;  gas  engines,  182; 
steam  turbines,  184;  development 
by  Parsons,  185;  Westinghouse 
takes  license  from  Parsons,  185; 
his  first  commercial  turbine,  186; 
the  Hartford  turbo-generator,  186; 
single-double-flow  type,  187;  im- 
pulse-reaction type,  187;  descrip- 
tion by  H.  T.  Heir,  188;  reduction 
gear  for  marine  turbines,  reasons 
for,  190;  Melville  and  MacAlpine 
invention,  192;  use  in  war  ships, 
194;  advantages  of  the  floating 
frame  gear,  194;  condenser  im- 
provements, Leblanc's  inventions, 
198 

Steam  turbines,  see  steam  and  gas 


Steel  cars,  for  the  New  York  Subways 
suggested  by  George  Gibbs,  with 
the  cooperation  of  Westinghouse 
and  Cassatt,  256;  a  car  built  at 
Altoona,  258;  two  companies  build 
300,  258 

Steel  castings,  181 

Stephen,  Sir  James  Fitz  James,  123 

Stephenson,  George,  322,  325 

Stetson,  Francis  Lynde,  141 

Stillwell,  Lewis  B.,  114,  144,  148, 
153 

Switching  and  signalling,  first  inter- 
ested in,  10,  see  chapter  on 


Taylor,  Frank  H.,  251 

Telephone  inventions,  a  form  of  ma- 
chine switching,  248;  American  de- 
velopment of  the  telephone,  250 

Telluride,  alternating  current  trans- 
mission, 144 

Tener,  Hubert  C.,  vii 

Terry,  Charles,  vii,  19,  139,  251 

Tesla,  Nikola,  121 

Thomas,  Eben  B.,  251 

Thomson,  Sir  William,  see  Lord  Kel- 
vin 

Townley,  Calvert,  vii,  290 

Transformer,  essentials  conceived  and 
developed  in  three  weeks,  105;  the 
heart  of  the  alternating  current  sys- 
tem, 107;  Westinghouse  invents 
and  patents  the  oil-cooled  trans- 
former, 109;  Stanley's  important 
contribution,  110 

Transmission,  electric,  greatest  dis- 
tances, 201 

Transportation,  evolution  of,  325 

Turbo-generator,  201;  industrial  im- 
portance, Westinghouse  foresaw  it, 
222;  first  units,  203;  rotating-field 
type,  203;  early  troubles,  204;  dis- 
places engine-type  generators,  205; 
enclosed  generator  and  artificial 
cooling,  207;  high  speed  and  low 
speed  and  horizontal  and  vertical 
type,  208;  effects  on  the  electrical 
industry,  208;  analytical  engineer-  ' 
ing,  209;  some  effects  of  short  cir- 
cuits, 209 

Turner,  W.  V.,  eminent  in  the  air- 
brake art,  62 

Turretini,  Colonel  Theodore,  42 

Unwin,  Professor  W.  C.,  142 
Uptegraff,  Walter  D.,  275 

Vacuum  brake,  63 
Vanderpoel  trolley  patent,  163 

Warren,  B.  H.,  251 
Watt,  James,  326 
Wellman,  Samuel,  230 
Westinghouse.      Albert      (brother), 

killed  in  the  Civil  War,  3 
Westinghouse,  George  (father),  2 


INDEX 


375 


Westinghouse,  George,  variety  of  ac- 
tivities, v;  kept  no  journals,  vi; 
birth  and  descent,  1 ;  qualities  of 
father  and  mother,  2,  6;  George 
and  his  brothers  as  soldiers,  3;  a 
normal  product  of  blood  and  breed- 
ing, 5;  as  a  boy  in  shop  and  school, 
7;  first  patent,  8;  marriage  and 
home,  8,  9;  first  brake  patent,  9, 
24;  signalling,  10;  eleven  years  of 
greatest  productivity,  10;  gas  and 
gas  engines,  16;  trustee  Equitable 
Life,  17;  as  an  administrator,  18; 
the  receiverships,  19;  never  beaten, 
19;  his  death,  20;  contributions  to 
civilization,  21;  first  ideas  of 
brakes,  24;  belief  in  standards,  31; 
saves  the  brake  after  Burlington, 
57;  greatest  contribution  to  the 
art  of  braking,  61;  carries  the 
brake  to  England,  62;  observations 
on  friction  and  speed,  68;  an  ideal- 
ist, 76;  friction  draft  gear,  77;  be- 
gins electrical  activities,  87;  be- 
comes interested  in  alternating 
current,  100;  begins  the  modern 
transformer,  104;  how  he  worked, 
105 ;  revolutionized  the  electric  art, 
116;  central  power-station  idea,  117; 
buys  Tesla  patents,  121;  invents 
alternating-current  meter,  128;  Chi- 


cago World's  Fair,  134;  Niagara 
Falls,  141;  traction,  159;  engines 
and  turbines,  179;  reduction  gear, 
190;  propeller  studies,  195;  turbo- 
generators, 201;  signalling  and  in- 
terlocking, 212;  natural  gas,  221; 
fuel  gas,  229;  lamps,  233;  multiple- 
unit  control,  240;  combined  coup- 
ler, car,  air,  and  electric,  242,  re- 
search, 244;  telephone  patents, 
248;  Board  of  Patent  Control,  250; 
air  spring  for  automobiles,  252; 
steel  cars,  256;  copper,  259;  Euro- 
pean enterprises,  262;  financial 
methods,  273;  reorganizations, 
279;  Equitable  Life  trustee,  281; 
personality,  287;  education,  310; 
meaning  of  his  life,  320 

Westinghouse,  Henry  Herman 
(brother),  vii,  5,  92,  113 

Westinghouse,  John  Hendrik  (great 
grandfather),  1 

Westinghouse,  John  (brother),  3 

Westinghouse  Companies  listed,  12, 
113 

Whittemore,  Don  J.,  311 

Wickes,  Edward  D.,  141 

Wilmerding,  town  of,  295 

Wistinghausens,  2 

Zipernowski,  104,  112 


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